Brock Bowers is ‘legit': Raiders rookie TE emerging as one of the NFL’s top playmakers
Brock Bowers is proving that he was the right choice when selected with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. In fact, he has some teams who passed him over maybe regretting not selecting him.
At the same time, those teams drafting ahead of the Raiders had specific needs and so did they. A tight end wasn’t the top need for Vegas, but when an overall talent like Bowers is there for the taking, why not?
With the top quarterbacks off the board by the time they selected, the Raiders looked at Bowers as a means of improving the offense in other ways. Through the first 6 weeks of his NFL career, he has done just that. The Georgia product leads the team in receptions with 37 and receiving yards with 384. That should only get better with the trade of Davante Adams which now makes the rookie tight end the official top target in the Raiders’ offense.
Brock Bowers is now the man in Las Vegas
As a team trying to salvage the season after the trade and find some consistency at quarterback, the one component of Bowers’ game has been his yards after the catch. Coming into week 7, the impressive rookie right end is in the top 10 amongst all playmakers with 206 yards after the catch. Impressive, yes…a surprise…?
"I don't think it's a surprise," Antonio Pierce said of Bowers' early success in the NFL, via the team’s official site. "Everything you saw on film, it's now in the National Football League, and it's for the Raiders. ... I mean, the things that we're able to do with him, it makes tough matchups. You can see now teams are trying to change up ways that they're defending him."
"I think with Brock though, what I love first and foremost, if you just watch the running game, just watch him finish guys down the field and out of bounds," Pierce added. "There's a clip with him and T.J. Watt and the way he finished that. I mean, that's what makes him unique because we know how special he is in the passing game, but to then go out there and have that effort in the run game. That's legit."
Pierce is obviously gushing over his rookie playmaker and rightfully so. If not for his injury towards the end of his season with the Bulldogs, Bowers would’ve most likely been a top 10, perhaps even top 5 selection in the draft. Lucky for the Raiders, he did slide a bit and now showing the NFL that he is not only one of the top tight ends in the league, but a top playmaker with the versatility to help his team in multiple ways.
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With Adams out of the picture, it is now time for other playmakers on offense to step up to form a supporting cast around Bowers. It also spotlights a test for Bowers to see whether he can continue to be the target he has been when defenses gameplan to limit his impact on the game.