After having an elite tight end (when healthy) over the last four years, the Las Vegas Raiders have a very different situation for fantasy football owners to navigate going into 2023, making it a situation to avoid.
The Raiders traded Darren Waller away to the New York Giants and are now left with 2023 second-round pick Michael Mayer, Austin Hooper, O.J. Howard and Jesper Horsted on the depth chart.
As far as Howard and Horstead go, forget they exist. One or both might fall into the end zone at some point this coming season, but not enough to warrant consideration and may not even make the final roster.
Hooper and Mayer, on the other hand, are at the top of the depth chart and figure to get the most opportunities, but both are shaky options, at best.
Hooper is coming off a season in which he finished as TE24 overall with the Tennessee Titans — even worse when you consider he was part of an offense that had no weapons in the passing game.
In reality, Hooper hasn’t been truly fantasy-relevant since 2019, and there’s no reason to believe he’ll change that in 2023.
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Mayer has more upside as arguably the best tight end coming out of this recent draft class, and he stands to be a very good pro at some point, but when that point comes remains to be seen.
The fact of the matter is Mayer is unproven, and there’s simply no telling how he’ll adjust to the pro game in his first season. Historically, rookies tend to struggle in fantasy football.
As if all of that wasn’t concerning enough, both Mayer and Hooper have to get on the same page with Jimmy Garoppolo, who has never played a single snap with either and isn’t exactly a bastion for passing-game production.
Jimmy G also brings injury concerns, and even if he can stay healthy, he has a fair amount of targets to feed in the wide receivers room, with guys like Davante Adams, Hunter Renfrow and Jakobi Meyers available to him.
Fantasy football takeaway
Tight end-needy fantasy managers in dynasty formats should definitely be drafting Mayer in the early rounds, but neither he nor Hooper are anything more than shot-in-the-dark TE3s and late-round flyers in season-long leagues.
