Beat Writer Says It Was “Mind Boggling” How Previous Raiders’ Coaches Used Former 2nd Round Pick

Michael Mayer was reportedly on the trade block ahead of the 2025 draft, but no trades materialized and now it sounds like the former second-round pick is on track to have a legitimate role in the Raiders’ offense in his third NFL season.

Mayer has been called one of the “standouts” of this year’s OTAs and the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Vinny Bonsignore said his lack of production in the last two years has not reflected well on previous coaching staffs in Las Vegas.

“A guy that caught my eye throughout this phase was tight end Michael Mayer,” Bonsignore said this week on the Vegas Nation podcast.

“Quite honestly, not throwing anybody under the bus that was here previously, but I can’t understand how those coaches didn’t get more out of Michael Mayer,” Bonsignore continued. “This is a guy that was a highly, highly productive player in college, and despite week after week [saying] they need to get Michael Mayer more involved… it never really happened which was mind boggling to me.”

“Well, at least in our reviewership of these practices, it’s pretty obvious that they’re trying, they’re not just saying [they] need to figure out a way, they are figuring out a way. He got a lot of touches during OTAs, and Pete Carroll talked about the great off-season that Michael Mayer had, and I think that’s showing on the field.”

Along with Dont’e Thornton, Mayer was one of the relative surprises of OTAs and it seems like the presence of Brock Bowers isn’t going to keep the former Notre Dame tight end off the field this year.

Mayer missed a large portion of the 2024 season for personal reasons, and not a lot is known about what caused him to step away from the team last year.

In October, Raider Nation Radio’s Q Myers provided the most detailed update that anyone has offered on Mayers’ absence, but even Myers’ account didn’t get into any kind of specifics.

“In the Michael Mayer situation… it’s nothing to do with him wanting to trade or him in playing time or not getting enough targets. It truly is a personal situation. And from what my understanding is, what I’ve been told is that they didn’t know what was going on with Big Mike,” Myers said last year on the Locked on Raiders podcast.

“His family had to tell the team about a situation that apparently has occurred in his life before that has put him in a position where he’s in,” Myers continued. “And now that they know what it is, they feel like that they can get to a resolution of it. So, I don’t know exactly what that means. That’s the way that it was worded to me.”

Mayer talked to members of the media this week and dropped a hint about Chip Kelly’s offense and a couple of personnel packages the Raiders have been working on in the offseason.

“With me and Brock [Bowers], it’s pretty interesting because we do a lot of 12 personnel stuff,” Mayer said. “You know, this spring we’ve also been doing a lot of 13 personnel, too, which has been awesome. It’s been a lot of fun.”

Bowers is one of the most versatile tight ends in the NFL and there’s a chance his role could be adjusted a little in 2025. When on the field with Bowers, Mayer could play a more conventional role at tight end and Bowers could split wide as a receiver.

Former Raiders’ GM Tom Telesco commented last week on Bowers’ ability to play wide receiver and tight end, and that dynamic was evident in his rookie year when he broke the all-time rookie receiving record (for any position) with 112 receptions.

x: @raidersbeat