Player

Michael Mayer

TE · Raiders

Mayer improving to career bests while playing second fiddle to Bowers shows a rare ability to elevate within a constrained role; most TEs buried behind elite TE1s see flat or falling numbers.

FanIQ Research · May 11, 2026 · 5 facts, every one from the play-by-play

Best-season-last: Mayer's 2025 (35 rec, 328 yds) tops his rookie year — while playing behind a top-5 TE.

Trend

Mayer career by season (regular season)

Season	G	Tgt	Rec	Yds	TD
2023	13	40	27	304	2
2024	11	32	21	156	0
2025	13	50	35	328	1

Mayer was the 35th pick in 2023, the consensus TE1 of a deep TE class. Then Brock Bowers went 13th overall in 2024 and the Raiders' TE depth chart inverted overnight.

Yet Mayer's 2025 (35 rec / 328 yds through 13 games) is his career best in both receptions and yards — achieved while serving as TE2 behind Bowers. His catch rate also improved every year: 67.5% (2023) → 65.6% (2024) → 70.0% (2025). The arc isn't decline — it's quiet adaptation.

Why it matters. Mayer improving to career bests while playing second fiddle to Bowers shows a rare ability to elevate within a constrained role; most TEs buried behind elite TE1s see flat or falling numbers.

Career high of 89 yards came on 9 catches in Week 17 vs NYG — the largest game of his career came in Year 3.

Split

Mayer's biggest game as a pro: Week 17 of 2025 vs NYG — 10 targets, 9 catches, 89 yards. That single Sunday produced more receiving yards than any other game of his career by 14 yards, and accounted for 27% of all his career 50-yard games (4 total).

The game's context: a 10-target volume spike — his previous career-high target count in any game was 9 (Week 14, 2024 vs TB and Week 6, 2025 vs TEN). It is the only game of his career with double-digit targets.

Top career games (receiving yards)

Season	Wk	Opp	Tgt	Rec	Yds
2025	17	NYG	10	9	89
2023	6	NE	6	5	75
2024	14	TB	9	7	68
2025	6	TEN	7	5	50
2025	18	KC	5	3	47
2023	11	MIA	5	4	46

Why it matters. A TE2 posting a 10-target game is unusual; it signals either an injury to the TE1 or a game-plan feature, and the timing (Week 17, late-season) suggests Geno Smith-to-Mayer chemistry grew over the year.

Bowers vs Mayer 2025: Bowers 86 targets, Mayer 50 — a clear TE1/TE2 hierarchy, but Mayer converts better.

Comparison

In 2025 the Raiders ran heavy 12-personnel, but targets split unevenly. Bowers: 86 targets, 64 receptions (74.4%) vs Mayer: 50 targets, 35 receptions (70.0%). The ratio is roughly 1.7-to-1 in target volume — not 2-to-1.

Mayer's 70.0% catch rate in 2025 is actually slightly below Bowers' 74.4%, but Mayer was the chain-mover in short-area routes. The role is honest about what he is: a 6'4" 265-lb in-line TE with reliable hands and minimal route tree.

Raiders TE room 2025 (regular season)

Player	Tgt	Rec	Catch%	Yds
Brock Bowers	86	64	74.4%	680
Michael Mayer	50	35	70.0%	328

Why it matters. A near-70% catch rate for the TE2 role suggests Mayer is being schemed into high-percentage looks, not asked to create — which matters for projecting his role if Bowers were ever injured or traded.

His only 2025 TD came in Week 6 vs TEN — ending a 14-game scoreless drought that spanned all of 2024.

Milestone

Mayer went without a receiving TD across all 11 games of his 2024 season. His last TD before Week 6 of 2025 was Week 15 of 2023 vs LAC — a span of 14 regular-season games between scores (3 games at the tail of 2025 preseason + 11 in 2024 + 3 to start 2025 = 14 games he appeared in scoreless).

Week 6 vs TEN 2025: 5 catches, 50 yards, 1 TD — finally ending the drought. The TE2 role isn't designed to produce TDs (Bowers gets the red zone looks), so even one is meaningful.

Why it matters. A 14-game TD drought for a TE who was drafted as a red-zone weapon underscores how completely the Bowers arrival reshuffled the Raiders' TE usage — Mayer essentially became a possession TE.

All 3 of Mayer's career TDs came in his 9 high-volume games (5+ targets) — zero TDs in his other 28 appearances.

Anomaly

Mayer has a clean binary TD pattern: in 9 career games with 5 or more targets he scored in 3 of them (33%); in 28 games with 1–4 targets he scored zero. His catch rate is also higher in high-volume games: 72.9% (43/59 targets) vs 63.5% (40/63) in lighter-usage games.

The implication: Mayer's value is almost entirely gated by how often the Raiders choose to feature him. When he gets the targets, he delivers. When he doesn't — which is most games — he's effectively a blocking TE with a stat line.

Mayer by target volume (career regular season)

Tgt Group	G	Tgt	Rec	Catch%	Yds	TD
5+ targets	9	59	43	72.9%	459	3
1–4 targets	28	63	40	63.5%	329	0

Why it matters. A TE whose TDs are perfectly correlated with target volume tells you his role is purely usage-dependent — game-scripts and play-calling, not matchup or talent, dictate his fantasy and real-world ceiling.

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