HENDERSON, Nevada — Something was strangely familiar to Las Vegas Raiders Hall of Fame coach Tom Flores as he watched a video highlighting the team’s second-round pick from his home run.
A massive but smooth tight end, he races through the middle of the field, picking up anything close to him when he wasn’t kicking defenders out of his way as an effective blocker. And you wear a Notre Dame shirt to boot?
Michael Meyer, Meet Dave Casper.
“I loved what I saw,” Flores told ESPN.com of Meyer’s signature reel. “He has the size, he’s well-built and he moves well.”
Yes, the last time the Raiders drafted a tight end from Notre Dame was good for both ends. And Flores was present to coach Casper when the Raiders took him in the second round of the 1974 draft, 45th overall, as he began his career at Canton.
In Mayer, the Raiders got such value that they also drafted him in the second round, moving up three spots to 35th overall, after he was listed among the top 15 overall prospects.
And not only did the Raiders get a highly-rated tight end, but they addressed a major need situation after they traded former Pro Bowler Darren Waller to the New York Giants for a third-round pick earlier in the season—Waller has missed 13 of the last 23 a regular season game with injuries—and allowed Foster Moreau to walk free agency.
Yes, even after signing veterans Austin Hooper, two-time Pro Bowler, and OJ Howard to one-year free agent contracts.
“[Mayer] He’s got a skill that’s set to come and make an impact for us in year one, and how far that will go, I wouldn’t put any expectations on him to say it’s going to be this or that, but I definitely feel like he can,” said Dave Ziegler, Raiders’ general manager, who admitted he was. Considering trading up to the first inning for Meyer’s pick, come make a dent for us in the passing game.
“Michael is going to be here for a long time from a contract standpoint. But the bar is high for him if he continues to grow and learn the nuances of the game. You’ll see a few different covers and a few different matches than you see in the college game, but he’s got a very good skill set to make an impact for us.” .
In particular, he’s third down and in the red with such “short zone speed” and size at his disposal, said Ziegler.
“Probably in terms of the size of our traits, one of the loudest players on our board in that respect as well,” Ziegler added.
Last fall, Meyer, who’s 6-foot-4 and 249 pounds, led the Fighting Irish with 67 catches for 809 yards and nine touchdown receptions—a school record for a tight end. He left Notre Dame holds school career records for TE in catches (180), receiving yards (2099) and TDs received (18) and caught a pass in all 36 games he played.
Coming to the Raiders, Meyer, who ran a 4.7 40 in combined and was third out of 15 tight ends drafted, said he wanted to continue working on blocking.
“The receiving part of it has always been there for me, but I really had to dig deeper into that hold,” he said. “It’s just going to keep getting better. So, that’s something I’m very proud of and I think being able to do those two things…is very, very important for a tight end. And I’m going to keep working at both and keep trying to excel at both.”
“I will attend and try to absorb as much information as possible [from Hooper and Howard]. These guys played football a lot, that’s for sure. And so, I’m going to come and learn a lot from them. We’ll complement each other well and we’ll have fun with it. And we’ll win ball games and it’ll be fun.”
Breaking from Raiders tradition at the position, Las Vegas coach Josh McDaniels’ offense has always displayed an affinity for playmaking.
“So I think I’ll be a good fit up front,” said Mayer. “I think it kind of comes down to what I was saying before; he comes in, he does what they tell me to do, and I don’t do anything else. Because it’s about winning football games and that’s kind of what they molded me to do.”
That’s what the last Notre Dame tight end drafted by the Raiders did as well. Casper, noted Flores, was not fleet either.
“But David could run,” said Flores, who was the Raiders’ receivers coach for Casper’s first five seasons before rising to prominence. “He was deceptive in his running. He had speed. I saw that in.”post ghost“.
“He was a brilliant player. Sometimes also Bright,” Flores laughed. But he was cool. He grabbed everything that was close to him. His ability to run the roads as well as he did was a pleasant surprise.”
Sound familiar?
“Casper didn’t miss any moves,” Flores said. “Dave was brilliant.”
Casper had Fred Biletnikoff and the speedy Cliff Branch, both of whom also had statues in Canton, clearing “alleys” of Casper in the center of the field, Flores said.
The current Raiders have an All-Pro lineup in Davante Adams and a former receiver in the Pro Bowl slot in Hunter Renfrow, as well as signing Jakobi Meyers in free agency and drafting Tre Tucker in the third round.
And as Flores saw it, it was imperative for his old team to draft a quality tight end, given talent in the position in the rest of the division with All-Pro Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers’ Gerald Everett and the Denver Broncos’ recently acquired Adam Trautman. .
“We have to be strong at the end of the day,” Flores said. Western Asia is a narrow world.