The conventional wisdom coming into the 2024 draft was the Las Vegas Raiders were going to get involved in the frenzy of drafting quarterbacks. That plan became moot when six teams selected a QB in front of the Raiders at Pick 13.
With the top quarterbacks gone, the Raiders chose the best athlete available, Georgia tight end Brock Bowers. A year after selecting tight end Michael Mayer in the second round of the ’23 draft, the Raiders reportedly spurned trade offers to move out of the spot because they believe so strongly in his ability.
In 40 games at Georgia, Bowers caught 175 passes for 2,538 yards and 26 touchdowns, being named a First Team All-American in each of his three seasons. He possesses a rare combination of speed, route running, and pass-catching ability, and the hype train has already picked up speed. The Raiders are talking a big game — but is it legitimate?
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The numbers would suggest it will be difficult for Bowers to make a significant immediate impact. In the last 20 drafts, these tight ends have been taken in the first round: Dalton Kincaid, Kyle Pitts, T.J. Hockenson, Noah Fant, Hayden Hurst, O.J. Howard, Evan Engram, David Njoku, Eric Ebron, Tyler Eifert, Jermaine Gresham, Brandon Pettigrew, Dustin Keller, Greg Olsen, Vernon Davis, Marcedes Lewis and Heath Miller.
Every one of them came to the NFL as a phenomenal talent, viewed more as a wide receiver than a typical professional tight end. The NFL levels that playing field quickly. Only four of the players listed above (Kincaid, Pitts, Engram and Fant) had more than 550 receiving yards as a rookie. Those are daunting numbers Bowers is up against.
Fantasy football outlook
The elephant in the room in Vegas is that the quarterback who will make Bowers a fantasy star isn’t on the current roster. Second-year man Aidan O’Connell took a beating last season, and veteran Gardner Minshew has had his moments, but he’s on his fourth team in five years for a reason.
The Raiders have a defense good enough to win games. All they’re asking is for their offense not to make critical mistakes in games that can be won. The loss of running back Josh Jacobs takes away the focal point of the offense, but the ground game is clearly going to remain an offensive priority, which doesn’t help Bowers.
For a team that scored 21 or fewer points in 13 of 17 games last year, expecting a breakout passing game from the Raiders is asking a lot. Keep in mind Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers and Mayer are still there. Bowers will have big individual weeks, but consistency will be hard to achieve as a rookie in the current scenario.
Bowers is viewed as one of the greatest tight end prospects in 20 years, and he could buck the trend of slow starts. The current point-per-reception ADP ranking has him as a back-end TE1. His talent will have Bowers owners playing him as a No. 1 every week to chase monster games. Fantasy managers have been doing that with Pitts for three years, and there have been more disappointing weeks than not.
If you can get Bowers as a TE2 in a 12-team league, jump at it. If he is your TE1, the weekly ebbs and flows will be hard to handle.