Raiders 2024 NFL Draft: Pairing Brock Bowers with Michael Mayer at TE?

On Day 2 of the 2023 NFL Draft, the Las Vegas Raiders traded up in the second round for Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer. The need for a tight end was brought on by Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, who decided to trade away former star Darren Waller to the New York Giants for the No. 100 overall pick.

That pick was used on Tre Tucker, who showed flashes of brilliance in Year 1, and will likely play a larger role in the offense. For Mayer, he will be a key player on this Raiders offense going forward as well, as he really got used to the NFL game down the stretch, and has the talent to be a playmaker for the Raiders going forward.

In 2024, the Raiders will make their first selection at pick No. 13 overall, and looking around at recent mock drafts, it is anybody's guess who the pick will be there. Depending on what they do pre-draft, Las Vegas could decide to go all-in and trade up for a quarterback, but if they do stay put at No. 13, could Georgia tight end Brock Bowers be the pick?

Could the Raiders pair Michael Mayer with Brock Bowers?

The 6-foot-4, 230 pound Bowers played three seasons with Georgia, and was a playmaker for them from his freshman season onward. He caught 56 passes for nearly 900 yards and 13 touchdowns as a freshman back in 2021, and followed that up with over 900 yards and seven touchdowns during Georgia's national title run in 2022.

A two-time national champion with Georgia, Bowers has been a potential first-round prospect since stepping foot in Athens, and all mock drafts have him getting selected on Day 1 in 2024. He twice won the John Mackey Award in college, given to the best tight end in the country, and was named All-SEC all three seasons.

In 2023, he was a unanimous All-American, and while he was bitten by the injury bug this past season, it will have no effect on where he is selected this April.

So would the Raiders really use a first-round pick on a tight end after bringing in Mayer last year? If Bowers is available at No. 13, as many mock drafts have him as a top-10 pick, he would be a very hard prospect to pass up.

Las Vegas will have decisions to make at quarterback this offseason, but imagine an offense where Josh Jacobs returns at running back, and whoever takes over as quarterback has Davante Adams, Tre Tucker, Jakobi Meyers, Mayer and Bowers to throw to. That would be an ideal situation for any quarterback in the NFL.

Tight end is not a priority going into draft season, but Bowers is a prospect that the Raiders cannot afford to pass on in the middle of the first round if available.