With each week that passed by this season that Michael Mayer was ruled OUT for personal reasons, it got more and more concerning as to what was going on with him.
The 2023 Round two pick (35 overall) was supposed to give the Raiders a dominant 1-2 punch at the tight end spot along with rookie 13th overall pick Brock Bowers. But following the team’s Week 3 loss to the Panthers, he was suddenly missing practices for personal reasons and has was ruled OUT for his third straight game as a result.
No word has been given as to what the issue is with Mayer. It’s personal which can mean any number of things. But for the Raiders, it means he will miss at least the next four games.
Mayer’s absence was one of several strange occurrences with the team that week. You may recall it was the postgame press conference following that Panthers loss that had Antonio Pierce saying some players were making business decisions.
That week, in preparations for the Browns, Mayer didn’t practice and was ruled OUT, Davante Adams had his hamstring issue and was ruled OUT followed by his trade request day after the game, Maxx Crosby missed the first game of his career with a high ankle sprain, and Jack Jones was benched for the first half.