The 2024 season has not been kind to the Las Vegas Raiders, though they have a building block in Brock Bowers to shape the offense around.
In a season with quarterback question marks and questionable coaching decisions, Bowers has been a constant in the passing game. Despite the team’s record, Bowers has been able to put up numbers and recently broke the rookie tight end record for receptions.
The star rookie has been turning heads this year, and in an appearance on The Silver and Black Show, Raiders legend Howie Long offered high praise to Bowers as transcribed by Michael Canelo of Sports Illustrated:
“He has been special everywhere he has been,” Long said. “Believe what you see. When you looked at him [Bowers] at Georgia and the things you heard out of Georgia and then they made the pick … The best possible player on the draft board was him.
“He is a willing blocker, he is not a great blocker. From a size standpoint, he is not that. I played with a guy named Todd Christensen, who you know set all kinds of records for tight ends. Great route runner, smart, understood all that. He is that with more athleticism, more speed, and ability, which is scary because you know you see the routes that he runs. Where they are playing him and it is kind of like a chest piece where do we put him? He is a hybrid. And he is a matchup problem. When you see a team like Denver put their number one cornerback on him, what does that tell you?”
Long even took it a step further and asked which tight end is currently playing better than Bowers:
“Guess what, we got one that is a problem and a major problem, and in his rookie year, who is better than him at this point realistically?”
Names like Travis Kelce and George Kittle still come to mind when discussing the best tight ends in the NFL, but there’s no question that Bowers already belongs in that tier. If the Raiders can solve their long-term problem at quarterback, Bowers could be in line for even bigger seasons.
General consensus Raiders are targeting Shedeur Sanders in 2025 NFL Draft
Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell split time as the starting quarterback this year, so it’s no surprise to hear that Las Vegas is targeting Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft.
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