The “12” may be a Seattle Seahawks thing.
But with Klint Kubiak’s arrival in the desert as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, it’ll become a Silver & Black thing, too.
No, no. Not the raucous home crowd at Lumen Field in Seattle. That’s most-definitely a Seahawks thing as the Raiders have a tremendous amount of work to do to get that kind of capacity home crowd roaring them on. This is a different breed of 12 for Las Vegas when it comes to Kubiak: 12 personnel.
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Kubiak is one of the game’s 12-personnel truthers as his Seahawks offense featured the one running back, two tight ends groupings at the 11th-highest rate in the NFL. The usage helped power Seattle’s offense that ranked third in points scored and 10th in yards gained this past season.
Kubiak’s ascension to the Raiders lead man is a great thing for tight ends Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer. At age 23 and 24, respectively, the duo provides their new head coach and play caller young targets at a position group he’s keen to use. Bowers hauled in 64 passes for 680 yards and seven touchdowns in his second season in the NFL while Mayer finished with 35 receptions for 328 yards and a touchdown in third season in the league.
“Brock has already put it on tape from Georgia to his first couple years here in the league. He can be one of the best receivers in the NFL, not just receiving tight ends,” Kubiak said when asked about his phenomenal tight end Bowers. “So, looking forward to working with him and continue to build on his skill set. Really impressive player.”
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Plainly put: It’ll be disappointing if Kubiak doesn’t have Bowers and Mayer humming in 2026. First and foremost though, availability and health will be critical for both tight ends this coming season. Bowers, who played in all 17 games his record-setting rookie season, suited up 12 times this past year (eight starts). His snap count went from 956 rookie year to 605 in 2025.
Mayer, meanwhile, played in 13 games (11 starts) this past year while suiting up for 11 games in 2024 (eight starts) and 14 games (12 starts) his rookie year in 2023. His snap counts read: 465, 450 and 602 in his three-year career span from 2025 back to 2023.
In terms of highest single-game output, Bowers’ highlight was a 12-catch, 127-yard, and three-touchdown outing against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9. Mayer’s most productive game was a 9-catch, 89-yard effort against the New York Giants in Week 17.
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Suffice it to say, Kubiak gets another young duo to coach and concoct plays for in Las Vegas but on a different-level athletically from the pair the Raiders new head coach had with the Seahawks — AJ Barner and Elijah Arroyo.
While Barner and Arroyo are taller and heavier at 6-foot-6 and 251 pounds and 6-foot-5 and 254 pounds, respectively, neither can run the routes as crisp with speed and precision like Bowers (6-foot-4 and 235 pounds). Mayer is a deceptive route runner that has the anchor and strength as a blocker at 6-foot-4 and 256 pounds. Kubiak dialed up plays that got Barner 52 receptions for 519 yards and six touchdowns in 17 games (all starts) while Arroyo totaled 15 catches for 179 yards and a touchdown in 13 games (four starts).
And who can forget the the fourth quarter-touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to Barner where Kubiak lulled the Patriots into thinking it was a run play but instead a play action scoring toss.
It’s that ability to establish the run and bait defenses with perceived tendencies and tells which will be valuable to a Raiders offense that stunk up the joint in 2025. He’s got two gifted tight ends in Las Vegas that can be ample receiving targets and dependable blockers that make deception all too possible.
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Kubiak can simply align Bowers — who offers position versatility with Kubiak even noting he’s more reminiscent of a receiver at times rather than tight end — at the traditional in-line grouping and put him in motion. And just watch how much the defense responds with defenders either following or shifting to account for Bowers on the move. While he may not garner the same amount of attention, moving Mayer across the formation allows the Raiders to get in the best possible position to succeed — run or pass.
I mean, just thinking of how wide open Bowers or Mayer can be with Kubiak dialing up the plays and the Raiders executing is exciting. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to get there — without question. But a play caller of Kubiak’s caliber and tight ends with untapped potential in Bowers and Mayer is a sound pair of weapons for whomever the team tabs as quarterback.
