Mayer Gets Paid, and the Raiders Have Their Tight End Insurance

The Raiders signed Michael Mayer to a $45 million extension, which is worth noting on its own. But the timing makes it something more than a routine retention move: Brock Bowers is out, his return timeline still unclear, and the team needed to know what it had behind him.

Mayer was a quiet presence in 2025 — 35 catches, 328 yards, one touchdown across 13 games, the kind of numbers that don't get discussed much when Bowers is healthy and eating up targets. But he's active, he's available, and right now that matters. Patrick Gurd is the only other tight end on the depth chart behind those two, which tells you most of what you need to know about why this deal got done.

I've written twice in the past week about the receiving room problem the Bowers surgery created. Mayer's extension doesn't solve it — Tre Tucker and the rest of that group still have to produce without the offense's best weapon — but it does clarify one thing. The Raiders aren't going into this stretch hoping Mayer sticks around out of goodwill. They've committed to him, and he's the de facto starter at the position until Bowers is back on the field.