It’s becoming clear just what makes Brock Bowers so special as a player. And it starts with his ability to get yards after the catch.
The rookie tight end’s ability to get every extra yard imaginable and a few yards you didn’t think were possible almost defies logic and reason.
Raiders offensive coordinator set about trying to explain just how Bowers does it.
“Some guys like…he’s a natural football player,” Luke Getsy said of Bowers’ YAC abilities. “What I mean by that is he understands spacing, he understands his awareness of what’s all going on around him. I think all that’s real. So, when he catches the ball and he knows he has space, there’s no wasted movement. There’s no figuring out, there’s no bubble around him. It’s catch, drop step, get vertical, and go. So, you’re seeing him catch check downs and you’re seeing him turn them into explosives. And so all that awareness of space and the people around you is something special that not everybody has. But he has it and that on top of understanding where he’s supposed to be conceptually and the toughness prt of it. That part is probably the most important.”
The rookie 13th overall pick leads all NFL tight ends over the first six weeks of the season with 206 yards after catch. That’s tenth in the league at any position. With 384 yards receiving, that means well over half his yards have come after the catch.
His numbers put him on pace for 584 yards after the catch on the season. The list of tight ends to have better numbers than that over the past five years is short.
2022 *Travis Kelce — 648
2019 *George Kittle — 602
2023 **David Njoku — 599
2020 *Travis Kelce — 587
*All Pro season
** Pro Bowl season
This is nothing new for Bowers. Twice in his three years at Georgia he led all FCS tight ends in Yards After Catch. But it’s one thing to do it on the collegiate level, it’s another to treat NFL defenders the same way.