The Raiders didn’t just lock up Michael Mayer on Saturday - they handed him a contract that sits near the top of the tight end market.
According to NBC Sports host Mike Florio, the three new years on Mayer’s extension are worth $45 million, which comes out to an average of $15 million per year. From signing, Florio reported, it’s a four-year, $47.02 million deal with an average of $11.755 million.
The guarantee structure is where the real weight of the deal shows up. Florio said Mayer has $22.5 million fully guaranteed at signing, and the full $30 million in guarantees will vest within six months. That puts him among the highest-paid tight ends in the league and, as Florio put it, “it will surely prompt plenty of other tight ends to call their agents.”
Those details arrived without a year-to-year breakdown at first, but that part of the contract surfaced on Wednesday.
What it means for the Raiders is pretty straightforward: Mayer is effectively attached to the team for two more years, and moving on from him before then would be costly. OverTheCap notes that he is under contract for four more years, and the first year Las Vegas can get out of the deal and save cap space is 2028.
For now, the plan appears to be Mayer and Brock Bowers working together for the foreseeable future. Still, it’s fair to view Mayer as a pricey insurance policy as much as a long-term fixture.
That’s a notable outcome for a player with just 89 receptions and three touchdowns in his NFL career. Even so, Mayer’s new deal puts him among the highest-paid tight ends in the league, which is a significant accomplishment no matter how you slice it.
As others have pointed out, Mayer got a “tremendous” deal, and the Raiders clearly had their reasons for paying him at the top of the tight end market despite the production not fully matching the price tag.
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