Raiders Cut Vet WR to Make Room for Michael Mayer

Getty Former Raiders WR Alex Bachman.

The Las Vegas Raiders‘ offense is set to look quite different following the bye week. Not only does the team have a new playcaller in Scott Turner, but they’re also getting tight end Michael Mayer back.

The former second-round hasn’t played since Week 3 and he just recently returned to the team after dealing with a personal issue. It sounds like the Raiders are ready for him to play in Week 11 against the Miami Dolphins as they announced that he’s been activated from the Reserve/Non-Football Illness list.

Las Vegas had to open up a roster spot to make room for Mayer and decided to cut wide receiver Alex Bachman. This is a disappointing development for Bachman as he recently got signed to an active roster for the first time after bouncing around practice squads for years.

In six appearances this season, he has three catches for 31 yards so he hasn’t been making a big impact on the field. That said, he’ll have a good chance to get back on the Raiders’ practice squad if another team doesn’t add him. He could find himself playing again on Sundays soon despite getting cut.

Scott Turner Talks Taking Over Raiders Offense

The Raiders have a new offensive coordinator but it remains to be seen how much Turner can do. He’s not going to be able to use his own playbook and will have to work around what Luke Getsy installed before he was fired.

Turner knows he can’t overhaul the offense but is figuring out ways to fix some of the issues that have plagued the team.

“You’re not going to go in and put a brand-new offense in,” Turner said during his Nov. 14 press conference. “Maybe some things that I’m a little bit more comfortable with or I feel like will help us be successful, we have it. And then it’s just about getting it communicated to our players in a way that makes sense to them. There might be a couple of new things here and there, and we’ll see how that grows as the season goes on.”

Scott Turner Addresses Norv Turner Addition to Staff

While Scott Turner is calling plays, the most notable addition the Raiders made to their offensive coaching staff was hiring his father Norv Turner as an advisor. He’s been out of the NFL since 2019 but Scott Turner assured that his father is up to date on the state of the league.

“He watches football constantly,” Turner said. “He knows what we’ve done on offense. Obviously, the verbiage is totally foreign to him, but I just translate it. He just says what he thinks, and I know, ‘Oh, yeah, we call it this.’ It’s really not that hard. And then just fundamentals. He has tidbits for the quarterbacks. He’s sitting in a lot of the quarterback meetings. Just stuff that you don’t even think of. I can only see so much. We have a great coaching staff, and those guys are doing a great job, too, but it’s just another set of eyes. … And also, he’s not afraid to tell me what he really thinks.”

It remains to be seen how much the Turner family can do to fix the offense but things can’t get much worse.