Getty Raiders draftee Brock Bowers
Heading into the 2024 NFL draft, there was some chatter about whether the tight end position would go the way of running back around the league, a spot on which teams would rarely use a first-round pick and could regularly just churn through the position a few years at a time. Unless you’ve got Travis Kelce or George Kittle, well, there’s no point spending big-time assets on tight ends. To that, though, the Raiders say pish. Give us Brock Bowers.
Las Vegas got the guy who is by far the best tight-end prospect in the 2024 draft on Thursday, as Bowers is likely to be the only tight end picked in the first two rounds after slipping to the Raiders at No. 13.
There were not many who loved the move, though. It was called a “stunner” at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where columnist Ed Graney wrote, “Love the player. Not so much the pick.”
That’s too low for a player of Bowers’ caliber, as Pro Football Focus sees it. The site plucked the four biggest steals of the NFL draft’s first round and sure enough, Bowers was on the list—even with the Raiders having sued a second-rounder on Michael Mayer last year. But PFF credited the Raiders with thinking outside the box.
“This could turn out to be a savvy move to zig while the rest of the league zags, allowing Las Vegas to frequently operate in 12 personnel,” the site noted, referring to the possibility of using two tight end packages.
Brock Bowers Compared to Travis Kelce
Bowers is 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, and was projected as high as is a potential Top 10 pick in this year’s draft. He played 40 games in three seasons at Georgia, where he helped the Bulldogs win two national championships. He totaled 2,538 yards on 175 catches, and scored 31 touchdowns.
PFF had him ranked as the No. 6 overall prospect and tabbed him with a season grade of 84.4 this year, No. 2 on the list of 468 tight ends in college football.
Draft analyst Colton Edwards wrote of Bowers, “He possesses the characteristics, attributes, and skill set to be a cornerstone of an NFL franchise. A cornerstone such as the Chiefs’ tight end Travis Kelce where the offense is dialed around him.”
That’s pretty high praise, but that is how good Bowers might yet prove to be.
PFF added, in an article titled, “2024 NFL Draft: Biggest steals of Day 1, including Brock Bowers and Laiatu Latu: “Topping the 85th percentile in three of PFF’s most stable metrics, Bowers saw only nine contested targets in 2022 while creating easy separation against SEC linebackers and defensive backs. He consistently made splashes after the catch, with 7.6 yards after the catch per reception, and ranked second among Power Five tight ends in yards per route run.”
Raiders Still Searching for New QB
The talent from Bowers is nice, and the Raiders now have a loaded group of pass-catchers with him and Mayer inside with Jakobi Meyers and Davante Adams as the receivers, but the question for the Raiders remains: Who’s going to throw passes to all these catchers?
One of the goals of the Raiders entering the draft was to come up with a quarterback of the future and perhaps of the present, a guy who could challenge Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell for the starting job in 2024 or at least be a long-term developmental option.
But when the Raiders’ choice was on the clock, six—six!—quarterbacks were off the board: Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Michael Penix Jr., JJ McCarthy and Bo Nix. There was literally no one left to draft.
If you’re looking out for the Raiders’ next move at the quarterback spot, the potential Day 2 draftees are Spencer Rattler from South Carolina and Tyler Pratt from Tulane. Don’t be surprised if we see one of those throwing passes to Bowers in training camp.