Raiders 2025: With Brock Bowers, Michael Mayer, tight end least of team’s worries

Las Vegas has young star power at the position group

A second-year superstar who can get even better. And a young tag team partner who hasn’t tapped into their full potential yet.

With Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer on the roster, it’s easy to see why the tight end position group is the least of the Las Vegas Raiders concerns as they prep for the 2025 season.

Bowers lived up to the “NFL-ready” label bestowed upon him heading into the 2024 NFL Draft and the 13th overall pick was spectacular in his record-setting rookie season. And the 6-foot-4, 230-pound Georgia product is the youngest in the position group at age 22.

Mayer, meanwhile, is bigger than his higher-drafted position mate at 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds and enters his third season in Las Vegas after plucked with the 35th overall pick in the 2023 draft. While Bowers arrived as a mismatch nightmare as a receiver, it’s Mayer who came to the NFL seen as an all-around receiver/blocker combination.

At 23 years of age, Mayer along with Bowers give Las Vegas two young tight ends who can get even better.

By The Numbers:
Brock Bowers, Tight End, Georgia
Michael Mayer, Tight End, Notre Dame

• 2024: 17 games (16 starts), 112 receptions, 1,194 yards, 5 touchdowns; 5 carries, 13 yards
• 2024: 11 games (8 starts), 21 receptions, 156 yards, 0 touchdowns

Super Bowers

The second-year tight end was a late arriver to Raiders offseason team activities (OTAs) but for good reason: Bowers finished up his courses to earn his degree at Georgia. Yet, once Bowers was back and in the mix, the new coaching staff saw for themselves, what the Napa native brings to brings to the table.

“So, he missed the first two or three weeks of phase two, so we didn’t see him when we were all first here when we got to see everybody at first glance. But when he came in here, he was as advertised, and unbelievable work ethic, unbelievable attention to detail,” Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said of Bowers. “All the things you’re looking for in a player, along with just a unique skill set, to have a guy that big and that athletic and moves in that way is kind of special. So, we’re really excited about what he can bring for us.”

Bowers played in all 17 games his rookie season (16 starts) and earned 956 total snaps (85 percent of the offense’s total). He lead the team in targets, catches, yards, and touchdowns (153, 112, 1,194, and five) and drew double-digit looks in seven games. His lowest targets were a meager three in Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns.

But as Kelly noted above, Bowers skill set lends itself to production — even in a bad 2024 Raiders offense. So sky’s the limit into 2025 with Kelly and head coach Pete Carroll.

Play-Mayer

Listed at about 35 pounds heaver than Bowers, Mayer brings a more physical element to his game and improved his in-line blocking ability during his time in the pros. The Notre Dame product is only 23 (24 on July 6) and missed a junk of the 2024 campaign with a personal issue (now resolved).

Playing in 11 games (eight starts) in 2024, Mayer was targeted 32 times and hauled in 21 passes for 156 yards (no end zone visits). He logged 460 snaps on offense (45 on special teams) and appears set to be Bowers’ running mate at tight end.

Kelly can truly get creative with alignments and mismatch scenarios with both Mayer and Bowers and it’ll be intriguing to see how the offense utilizes two or even multiple tight ends in 2025.

“But I think Mike’s been outstanding, and I checked, you can play with two tight ends in a game at the same time, and sometimes you can play with three tight ends they told me. So, maybe we can get to that if we have to,” Kelly noted. “Obviously you’re going to try to attack each team you’re playing each week differently, depending on how they defend you. But to be able to have that ability and have a couple quality guys here, because Ian Thomas has been outstanding, and he’s a guy that’s played a lot of snaps in this league, too.”

The Group

With seven players at tight end, that number will surely whittle come 53-man roster time.

Ian Thomas is the elder statesman of the group at age 29. Heading into his eighth season in the NFL (arrived in 2018 as a fourth-round pick in the draft by the Carolina Panthers), Thomas’ participation rate on both offense and special teams has waned from the 2022 season on.

Playing in only 94 snaps on offense in 2024 in Carolina (nine special teams snaps), the 6-foot-4 and 260-pound Indiana product is very much a veteran flier signing. Profiling more as a blocking tight end, Thomas has 119 receptions for 1,062 yards and four touchdowns in his career with the highest out put being his rookie season in 2018: 36 catches, 333 yards, two touchdowns.

Converted wide receiver Justin Shorter is the incumbent alongside Bowers and Mayer. The 25-year-old — entering his third year in the league — has good size at 6-foot-5 and 228 pounds and the Florida product did clock a 4.55 40-yard dash time at the 2023 NFL Combine. He only earned 25 snaps on offense in 2024 for the Raiders and logged 126 snaps on special teams. Shorter entered the league as a fifth-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 2023 NFL draft.

Qadir Ismail, another converted wide receiver, has NFL bloodlines (his uncle is former Raider Raghib “Rocket” Ismail) and size at 6-foot-6 and 232 pounds. He inked with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent and spent 2024 on the team’s practice squad. Las Vegas inked the 25-year-old this offseason.

Undrafted rookies Carter Runyon and Pat Conroy round out the tight end group in Las Vegas. Runyon (23 years old) is an athletic “move” tight end type (ran a 4.63 40 at a pro day and is 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds) while Conroy (24 years old) has H-back/fullback potential at 6-foot-2, 240 pounds and timed 4.68 speed.

“And there’s never a position anywhere where a coach will say, ‘You know what, we have too many good players.’ Like that’s never the case, especially in this league, because everybody’s really talented that you’re going to go against,” Kelly said. “So the more tight ends we can get, the more wide outs we can get, the more running backs we can get, the more quarterbacks you can get, then we’ll continue to take them.”