Ranking AFC West tight ends: Are Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers ready to take over the division?

Tight end is one of the most intriguing positions on the Las Vegas Raiders’ roster heading into the 2024 season. Between second-year pro Michael Mayer and rookie first-round pick Brock Bowers, the Raiders certainly have plenty of talent at tight end, but how do those two stack up against the rest of the AFC West?

1. Travis Kelce

There’s no argument here as Kelce is a top two tight end in the NFL with George Kittle serving as his biggest rival. The Kansas City Chiefs’ offense runs through the seven-time All-Pro, and he ranks fourth at the position in league history with 11,328 career receiving yards. With a little more than 500 yards this season, the future Hall of Famer will pass Antonio Gates for third on the all-time list, and Kelce is currently tied with Jason Witten for the fifth-most touchdowns with 74.

2. Will Dissly

There’s a steep drop off from No. 1 to No. 2, but Dissly was a solid free-agent pickup for the Los Angeles Chargers this offseason. He’s been a good blocking tight end throughout his career and is coming off a campaign where he ranked second at the position with a 77.2 run-blocking grade from Pro Football Focus. Granted, the former Seattle Seahawk didn’t contribute much as a receiver last year with 17 catches for 172 yard and just one touchdown, but he should be a good fit in Jim Harbaugh’s ground-and-pound offense.

3. Michael Mayer

 Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

Mayer finished his rookie season with 27 catches, 304 yards and two touchdowns which ranked tied for fourth, fourth and tied for fifth among AFC West tight ends. Those are decent numbers considering he played with three different starting quarterbacks and missed the final three games on the Raiders’ schedule with an injury. The latter was disappointing as the Notre Dame product was showing growth as a run blocker toward the end of the year. However, Mayer finished with a 47.6 PFF run-blocking grade which is the reason for him being slightly behind Dissly heading into the campaign.

4. Adam Trautman

Sean Payton brought Trautman over from the New Orleans Saints to serve as the Denver Broncos’ starting tight end. Trautman has a decent track record as a run-blocker, logging a 60.1 mark from PFF last season which isn’t a bad grade for the position. For example, that figure was only 0.2 points away from landing in the top 20 across the league and only seven tight ends finished in the 70s. However, the former Saint and current Bronco isn’t a big factor in the passing game, never surpassing 263 receiving yards in a single season.

5. Noah Gray

It’s hard to garner targets playing behind Kelce, but Gray has made the most of his limited opportunities over the past two seasons. In 2022, he posted a stat line of 28/299/one which isn’t bad as a second tight end, and he was equally as productive last year with another 28 grabs for 305 yards and two scores. Those are good numbers for a second tight end, and the Duke product has been about an average blocker during that time frame with PFF run-blockign grades of 60.1 and 57.2, respectively.

To address the elephant in the room, Bowers was left off the list simply because he’s a rookie and hasn’t proven anything in the NFL yet. The same logic applied with the quarterback and wide receiver rankings as Bo Nix came in at No. 4 and Xavier Worthy was excluded from the top 10.

This doesn’t mean the No. 13 overall pick isn’t going to have a good year and can’t quickly climb up the latter this fall, but he has to earn his spot.