According to The Athletic's Vic Tafur and Tashan Reed, the Raiders have "usually" been lining up in "heavy sets" on offense, meaning multiple TEs on the field at the same time. That makes sense given the team added first-round rookie Brock Bowers to 2023 second-rounder Michael Mayer at the position. The team also sports lackluster WR talent behind Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers.
The Athletic: "The Raiders will have first-round pick Brock Bowers and second-year man Michael Mayer on the field together during the season, and they both have stood out with their catches and blocking.
S Tre'von Moehrig: "They’re both big, physical guys who have really great route-running ability. Michael has really stepped it up in Year 2 — how he catches the ball and how he runs his routes. … And Brock, he’s had that ability all along, so hopefully he can continue to do the things he’s been doing."
New OC Luke Getsy doesn't give us much history of two-TE sets to work from in his time as passing-game coordinator with the Packers and then OC with the Bears. But he also didn't have TEs nearly as good as what the Raiders now present.
Vegas needs to leverage the talent readily apparent in Mayer and Bowers, who each spent three college seasons leading their teams in receiving.
The biggest fantasy question, of course, is whether they can find enough targets to make sense for our starting lineups. And we can't know the answer until the season gets rolling.
Our TE rankings have Bowers well ahead of Mayer -- and 12th at the position in PPR -- with nearly twice as many projected targets.
A narrower gap between them would likely hurt the rookie's fantasy value more than it would help Mayer's.
Mayer and Bowers figure to cannibalize each other's fantasy upside to at least some degree as long as they remain teammates.
We didn't downgrade Bowers for his landing with the Raiders, though. Spending a first-round pick on a TE says you plan to try to get him the ball plenty.
Mayer fell in our dynasty rankings after the draft. We'll continue assessing both players and their roles into the regular season.
Two-TE sets would primarily be bad news for No. 3 WR Tre Tucker. If that's significantly impacting your fantasy plans, though, then you play in an impressively deep league.
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