The Las Vegas Raiders lost Brock Bowers to an injury this week, and Michael Mayer got a big extension.
The Las Vegas Raiders have announced that they’re giving tight end Michael Mayer a three-year extension, according to reports from ESPN, Pro Football Talk and multiple other outlets.
The timing is what makes this interesting. The Raiders just lost tight end Brock Bowers to an injury this week, and Mayer is expected to step into a larger role, as coach Klint Kubiak tends to feature tight ends in his offense.
The terms are also intriguing. Kubiak and GM John Spytek are obviously trying to anticipate the tight end market by giving Mayer a three-year deal for $45 million, with $30 million of that money guaranteed. That means it’s really a contract for $10 million a year, given the vagaries of contract language, signing bonuses and cap hits that are always just around the corner.
It’s a lot of money for a player who really hasn’t done much so far in his NFL career. This will be Mayer’s fourth year with the Raiders, and his production as a second-round pick has been subpar so far, to say the least.
Mayer finished last season with career highs in receptions with 35 and receiving yards with 328. Much of that productoin came during four of the five games when fellow tight end Brock Bowers went out with a PCL injury and bone bruise in his left knee.
Bowers brings speed and open-field athleticism to the position, and those are two qualities Mayer lacks, although he did catch 18 passes for 196 yards and a touchdown during those four games.
Mayer has also been nicked up a lot, and that will need to change this year, especially with Bowers’ status now more uncertain than ever. The Raiders have only said that Bowers will miss “a game or two,” but that’s what they said last year when Bowers first went down, so it’s fair to take this initial report with a grain of salt.
Mayer was also touted coming out of Notre Dame as a blocker, but that talent has also proved problematic. The Raiders had no running game last year, although Kubiak is trying to change that with the combination of running back Ashton Jeanty and rooke Mike Washington Jr.
We’ll have a much better idea of how all this is going to work tomorrow when the Raiders take the field against the Miami Dolphins for their season opener. Mayer now has to provide a lot of value to justify the money he’ll be getting, and that’s an issue he hasn’t had to face before.
