How Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers complement each other

The two tight ends play the same position but differently

With the Las Vegas Raiders spending a second-round pick on tight end Michael Mayer during last year’s NFL Draft and then using a first-rounder on tight end Brock Bowers last week, naturally, the question arises of how both players can coexist in the offense.

It’s a completely rational inquiry to have, but while Mayer and Bowers play the same position, they have different skill sets that complement each other.

Here, we’ll take a look at several elements that tight ends are asked to do and touch on the different roles the Georgia and Notre Dame products can play in the Raiders’ offense moving forward.

Run Blocking

Run blocking is Mayer’s biggest competitive advantage over Bowers. The former is bigger, measuring in at 6-foot-4.5 and 249 pounds while the latter was 6-foot-3 and 243 pounds at the NFL Combine. Also, Mayer was likely trying to slim down to improve his speed for the event — the Raiders currently list him at 265 pounds — while Bowers needed to bulk up.

Additionally, the former Golden Domer earned an 82.1 run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus during his final college season. While he struggled in this department at the beginning of his rookie year, he made significant steps toward the end of the campaign. Meanwhile, the former Bulldog posted a mark of 62.4 in 2023.

Also, this was one of the few knocks on Bowers as a prospect. Granted, he was an effective blocker in the ground game on crack tosses or pin-and-pull concepts, but that was when Georgia split him out wide rather than inline blocking.

Alignment

While Bowers is labeled as a tight end, he actually spent less than 50 percent of his total snaps last season lined up as a tight end — about 48.3 percent, per PFF. He was used in a variety of alignments, most notably spending roughly 37.9 percent of his time as a slot receiver and 9.2 percent outside.

Mayer was much more of a traditional tight end at Notre Dame, logging nearly 62 percent of his reps at that spot in 2022 with just 27.0 percent coming as a slot receiver. Granted, his usage outwide was similar to Bowers, about 8.4 percent.

Photo by Jorge Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images

In Las Vegas last season, the 2023 second-round pick saw his inline snaps go up to roughly 73.4 percent and slot snaps dip down to about 19.9 percent. So, in addition to standard two-tight end formations, this is one way offensive coordinator Luke Getsy can get both guys on the field at the same time since the rookie has plenty of experience as an inside receiver.

Also, for what it’s worth, Bowers took about four percent of his snaps in the backfield if Getsy wants to get even more creative and add a few wrinkles.

Route Tree

While run blocking is Mayer’s biggest competitive advantage over Bowers, the script flips when it comes to being a route runner. That’s not to say the former is bad by any means, but the latter runs routes more like a wide receiver than he does like a tight end. He’s faster and more explosive than his new counterpart, allowing him to be better at creating separation.

A good example of this is Bowers’ targets in Athens last season were spread out with 12.7 percent (nine targets) coming on deep routes, 25.4 percent (18) on medium routes, 22.5 percent (16) for the short area, and 39.4 percent (28) behind the line of scrimmage, per PFF. Mayer’s 2022 figures in college were 10.9 percent (11), 23.8 percent (24), 48.5 percent (49) and 16.8 percent (17) for the same respective categories.

An important piece of context to keep in mind for those numbers is Bowers only played in 10 games while Mayer participated in 12 which is why the volume stats might be a little head-scratching.

The biggest disparity between the two players is that Mayer is much more reliant on short targets as the numbers above show. That was the case even more during his rookie season as a whopping 67.6 percent (25) of his targets came zero to nine yards past the line of scrimmage.

So, the data and skill sets suggest the rookie can be used down the field more which could help open things up for the second-year pro underneath.

YAC

Comparing both players’ yards after catch numbers leads to some interesting findings.

Bowers is elite with the ball in his hands as about 67.8 percent of his 717 receiving yards last season came after the catch, and he ranked seventh among FBS tight ends with 8.7 YAC per reception. Mayer’s numbers during his last year in college weren’t nearly as impressive — 40.2 percent and 4.9 YAC/rec — but those figures went up during his rookie season — 53.6 percent and 6.0 YAC/rec.

Ultimately, the incoming rookie is better but both tight ends are good after the catch, just in different ways. Bowers’ athleticism allows him to make defenders miss whereas Mayer uses his size and strength to be more of a bully after the catch. Granted, the Georgia product doesn’t go down easily, either.

Contested Catches

Contested catches are another area where the size of the two players makes a big (no pun intended) difference. One of Mayer’s biggest strengths is coming down with 50/50 balls as he hauled in 17 of 26 (65.4 percent) contested targets in 2022 and was five for nine (55.6 percent) last year.

Meanwhile, Bowers is still learning how to use his body and position himself to win on those jump ball throws as he only had two contested catches on nine attempts last season (22.2 percent). Granted, he did have more success as a freshman and sophomore, but the film doesn’t suggest this will be a strength of his game at the next level.

As mentioned above, the former Bulldog is more of a separator while the former Golden Domer is better at high-pointing and coming down with passes in traffic.

Red Zone

This section kind of goes hand-in-hand with the one above, and CBS Sports showed that Mayer was elite in the red zone coming out of Notre Dame.

Dominant in the red zone, ranking first among qualifying 2022 tight ends in targets (21), catches (15), yards (153), yards per route run (3.73) and tackles avoided (five). Scored six times inside the 20 with his other three touchdowns coming from 22, 24 and 24 yards out.

That being said, Bowers wasn’t bad in this area but not in the caliber of Mayer as CBS laid out the numbers for the Georgia product.

In the red zone over his career Bowers caught 29 of 46 targets (63%) for 231 yards and 15 of his 26 touchdowns with two drops. That’s pretty good, but it’s worth pointing out that in 2023 he caught just half of his 16 targets in the red zone for 66 yards and three scores. Again, he was better here in the past.

One aspect of the rookie’s game that could throw this for a wrinkle is he was given the ball on handoffs or tosses in college and was an effective runner with a career average of 9.6 yards per carry and five rushing touchdowns on 19 attempts. Also, he can be used in the screen game with his ability to make defenders miss.

So, again, the Raiders can use Mayer on jump balls in the red zone while Bowers could be a good gadget player to keep defenses on their toes via jet sweeps and creative play-calling.