The Las Vegas Raiders turned heads when they gave Michael Mayer a three-year deal worth $45 million that made him one of the highest-paid tight ends in the NFL. Sure, a player is worth what a team is willing to pay him. However, Mayer hadn’t done enough to warrant a pay bump when the Silver & Black extended him.
Of course, you could argue that the Raiders paid Mayer because of upside rather than past production. But if that’s the case, they’ve yet to see a return on their investment. Even worse, it doesn’t look like the coaching staff is making the most of his skill set.
The Raiders aren’t maximizing Michael Mayer’s skill set
Just because Michael Mayer is one of the highest-paid players on the team doesn’t mean that he’s suddenly going to get more targets than fellow tight end Brock Bowers, or that he’s going to become Kirk Cousins’ most trusted target out of the blue. However, you would think that Las Vegas had a plan when it extended him.
This season, the former Notre Dame Fighting Irish has reeled in 21 catches on 25 targets for 171 yards with a touchdown. Those aren’t bad numbers, but they aren’t great either. The issue is that he doesn’t have much of a role on offense. Outside of Week 2 (10 targets) and the opener (seven), he hasn’t topped five. Heck, he had a season-low one target in the embarrassing loss to the New England Patriots.
But apart from his dearth of targets, Mayer played a season-low 39 offensive snaps, or 65 percent of the team’s total. That’s not the kind of role you expect from what’s supposed to be a core player on your team.
Regarding Mayer’s lack of usage against New England, head coach Klint Kubiak said that he tried to get him involved but wasn’t able to because of how the game unfolded. Perhaps the loss to the Patriots is an outlier. Maybe Kubiak will make Mayer a bigger part of the offense moving forward. But for the time being, signing him to an extension remains a puzzling decision.
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Michael Mayer needs to be a bigger part of the offense
Michael Mayer has never been great at getting deep or generating yards after the catch. That’s not who he is. Instead, the Edgewood, Kentucky native is the kind of tight end who’ll work in the middle of the field to give his quarterback a safety net. Without a true bona fide No. 1 receiver, Brock Bowers is Las Vegas’ top target.
In theory, he should draw coverage away from Mayer. This would in turn leave him with favorable matchups, but that hasn’t been the case. It doesn’t help that opposing defenses aren’t afraid of the Raiders’ running game, so they can drop extra players in coverage.
But regardless of factors beyond his control, Mayer isn’t simply giving the Raiders enough bang for their buck. And unless that changes soon, a deal that already looks questionable will look even worse.
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