It's easy to forget that, barely a year ago, Michael Mayer was the Raiders' tight end of the future. When they took Mayer in the 2nd round (35th overall) in the 2023 Draft, the Notre Dame tight end was considered one of the next great pass-catching tight end prospects. To give you a sense of how bullish people were on him, on the NFL's own website, Mayer's pre-draft profile comparison was *Jason Witten.*
Then he put up a ... decent? ... rookie season. Modern tight ends have a bit of a growing reputation as slow developers, and Mayer's rookie stats (14 games, 12 starts, 27 catches, 304 yards, two touchdowns) painted the picture of a guy with tons of potential that still had a fair bit of adjusting in front of him.
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But when the Raiders used their first round pick on Brock Bowers literally one year later, Mayer became a bit of an afterthought. There were promises of 12-personnel magic with both of them on the field, but Bowers' insanely-fast ascension – plus Mayer's season-long absence – has put the latter firmly on the back-burner over the last two months. This week, however, that changed.
Michael Mayer returns to Raiders practice for first time this season
TE Michael Mayer returned to practice. pic.twitter.com/fPWcMj3zp1
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 12, 2024
The Raiders' season is a lost cause, but this is still plenty of reason to celebrate. The way Raiders reporters talked about Mayer's absence was a little concerning at times, so it's great to see he's just in a place to be back on a football field and practicing. That, in and of itself, is a desperately-needed bit of good news during an otherwise miserable season.
On the field, though, Raiders fans may finally get to see some glimpses of what an offense featuring both tight ends on the field at the exact same time. An elite 12-personnel grouping is one of the bigger cheat codes in today's NFL, and the ability to get Bowers lined up around the field even more than he already has been, while still having a reliable "traditional" tight end, would be a huge step for the Raiders' offense.
When it's November and you're in contention for the first overall pick, this is the kind of stuff that keeps people sane. Another reason to watch pointless Raiders games never hurts.