The Las Vegas Raiders had their best offensive performance of the season in Week 9, as they set a new season-high in points during the 30-29 overtime loss. The offense's successful day was clearly sparked by the return of Brock Bowers, who had been dealing with a knee injury since Week 1 and had missed the three previous games.
In his first full healthy game this season, the 2024 first-team All-Pro tight end had the best performance of his career. Bowers finished with 127 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns on 12 receptions, while adding a carry that went for 6 yards. Michael Mayer also continued to contribute, as he finished with three receptions for 26 yards, with each of his catches resulting in a first down.
Las Vegas utilized 12 personnel -- one running back, two tight ends, two wide receivers -- on 58% of their plays on Sunday, the highest mark of any team this season. Las Vegas was in either 12 or 13 personnel -- one running back, three tight ends, one wide receiver -- on 67% of their offensive plays.
Chip Kelly and Geno Smith clearly have different opinions on 12 personnel
Bowers and Mayer were both consistently on the field, playing 81.3% and 82.8% of the offensive snaps, respectively. While Geno Smith loved the action, Chip Kelly seemed uncommitted to continuing to let 12 personnel dominate their personnel selection going forward.
Kelly essentially explained during his Tuesday media availability that, while the team has two talented tight ends, they must always react to what their opponents do, instead of asserting their will like Raider Nation wants them to.
"They're both really good tight ends, but I think your use of personnel really depends on what defenses you're going against and what that elicits from defenses," Kelly said. "So, sometimes you say, 'Hey, we should be in a lot more 12 ball.' If they put a different look on the field, then you probably don't want to be in 12. You want to be in 11. So, you're trying to figure out how do they deploy their defensive guys based upon what you deploy because they don't have to play what we want them to play. ... So, I think each week will change because every opponent is different. So, the fact that we've always felt like we have two No. 1 tight ends in Mike and in Brock is a good deal. But how we use them, how we deploy them each week, will really depend on who our opponent is."
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Smith clearly had a different assessment of how the team's personnel should be utilized going forward, as he explained during the same press conference.
"I mean, you got to use your great players, man. You got to use your good players. And Brock and Mike are two of our good players and two of the guys that we rely on in this offense," Smith said.
"If we're in 12 personnel, 11 personnel, no matter who's out there, guys got to make plays, but having those two guys on the field, you can see the results, man. They are both extremely talented players. They play extremely hard. And they're big targets, man. They find ways to get open, and you can see what they do with the ball in their hands."
Following Tuesday's deal that sent Jakobi Meyers to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Raiders should continue to utilize two tight end sets as often as possible, particularly after having such success with this personnel group last week.
The remaining players in Las Vegas' wide receiver room, aside from Tre Tucker, have hardly done anything this season, as no other player has even 100 receiving yards.
While Kelly's comments will not thrill a fan base that has not been very happy with his results through eight games anyway, it is possible that the offensive coordinator simply did not want to tip his hand ahead of the divisional matchup.
Getting Jack Bech and Dont'e Thornton Jr. more reps should be a priority; however, the Raiders should have their best players on the field more often than not, and that includes both Bowers and Mayer, whether Kelly wants to admit and lean into that or not.