The Raiders brought in tight end Brock Bowers with the 13th overall pick on Thursday night, giving themselves another potential dynamic offensive weapon.
While General Manager Tom Teleseo was not presiding over Las Vegas’ 2023 draft, the team did select tight end Michael Mayer in the second round last year. He finished with 27 catches for 304 yards with two touchdowns in 14 games.
Even with selecting Bowers, Telesco noted that the Raiders still love Mayer and plan to use both tight ends.
“[W]ith a player like Brock, just with the scouting staff, where they had him, what they thought about him, what the coaching staff thought, he was really pretty a consensus guy,” Telesco said Thursday, via transcript from the team. “Makes it a little bit easier, fully knowing that we have Michael Mayer, who is an excellent tight end, but there’s no rule in the NFL that you can only play one. We can play two tight ends, we can move people around.
“At Notre Dame, Michael was split out sometimes as a receiver. Brock has been split as a receiver, Brock’s even played some running back, and then our receivers can go inside and outside, so it’ll be a nice little group to work with.”
Telesco added that Bowers and Mayer each have collegiate experience playing in multiple tight end formations, which should help them in the pros.
“There’s just different ways to attack people week to week and the more options we have available in the tight end room and receiver room, the better,” Telesco said.
Bowers was a first-team All-SEC honoree and won the Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end in each of his last two seasons at Georgia. He caught 175 passes for 2,538 yards with 26 touchdowns in his 40 games as a Bulldog.
“He’s tough,” Telesco said. “And when you when you play at Georgia, as a tight end, you have to be able to block. And in the SEC, he’s played against some real defenders. ourselves. But he’s an athletic move receiving tight end, but he can get down and block a bit on the line of scrimmage, which you’re going to have to do at this level, too. So, this kind of shows you what his game’s like.”