Georgia lost its best player in Saturday’s 37-20 win at Vanderbilt. Star tight end Brock Bowers will miss extended time due to an ankle injury that required TightRope surgery. It’s possible we will not see Bowers on the field the rest of the regular season.

Bowers’ overall impact is immeasurable. He leads Georgia in receptions (41), receiving yards (567) and total touchdowns (5) this season. Bowers is additionally Georgia’s best blocking tight end. Where does Georgia turn with its Heisman hopeful sidelined?

The Bulldogs are headed into their toughest stretch of the season. Georgia will travel to Jacksonville to take on the Florida Gators on Oct. 28. Then UGA has three straight top-20 matchups on the slate: No. 20 Missouri at home (Nov. 4), No. 13 Ole Miss at home (Nov. 11) and No. 17 Tennessee in Knoxville (Nov. 18).

While a player of Bowers’ caliber isn’t simply replaceable, the Dawgs have the talent on offense to keep things on track. That starts with sophomore tight end Oscar Delp, who will step into the starting role.

Delp came to Athens as the No. 1 tight end in the country in the 2022 recruiting class, per 247Sports. He spent last season behind Bowers and 2023 NFL draft pick Darnell Washington, but has played extensively this year as the No. 2 option in the tight end room.

Delp has 13 catches for 160 yards and two touchdowns this season. He’s the Bulldogs’ next best option in terms of experience and familiarity with the Mike Bobo offense. Bobo spent last year with the tight end room as an offensive analyst before moving to offensive coordinator this year.

True freshmen tight ends Lawson Luckie and Pearce Spurlin III are the options besides Delp. Luckie, who came to Athens as the No. 2 tight end in the 2023 class, is healthy following TightRope surgery in fall camp. He played seven snaps on Saturday.

Spurlin was rated as the No. 5 tight end in the same class and has also battled injuries. He missed the entirety of spring practice due to a broken collarbone and has appeared in three games this season, most recently against Kentucky.

It’s safe to say the Georgia offense will not utilize 12-personnel looks as often with the depth concerns at tight end. Head coach Kirby Smart acknowledged that when Luckie went down in August.

“It’s a position that, if you have the luxury of depth at receiver, you don’t have to play as much 12,” Smart said. “If you’ve got 12 personnel, you’d better have two viable backups there, and we’ve certainly worked towards that.”

The good news is the Bulldogs are healthy at receiver for the first time this season. Junior Ladd McConkey has worked his way back from a back injury that caused him to miss the first four games of the season. McConkey has been the go-to option on third downs for quarterback Carson Beck.

Senior wideout Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint is having his best season as a Bulldog, and transfers Rara Thomas and Dominic Lovett seem to be growing more comfortable in their roles each week.

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The outlook would be much bleaker if the Bulldogs didn’t have one of the best defenses in the country. That said, Georgia’s offense will look differently without Bowers and the UGA staff will have to find a way to utilize the receivers more in his absence. The Dawgs have two weeks to figure things out before they face the Gators.

It’s not a bad idea to take advantage of having one of the best college football players in the country in your position group. That’s just what Georgia sophomore tight end Oscar Delp has done while playing behind All-American Brock Bowers.

Delp has an important role this season as the Bulldogs look to replace the production lost from 2023 third-round NFL draft pick Darnell Washington. The former four-star recruit has developed a close relationship with Bowers and acknowledges the “huge” impact that has made on his young career.

“It’s huge. I mean, having a guy like that in our room to kind of teach me and the younger guys and everyone else in that room, it’s huge,” Delp said last week. “I mean, he’s an awesome dude. He’s one of my best friends on the team, and we’re hanging out all the time. But just the way he approaches practice and meetings and walk-throughs and everything, it really puts everything in a different perspective, and I think it pushes everyone in the room a little bit more.”

Georgia has no shortage of talent in the tight end room with Bowers, Delp and two of the nation’s top players in the 2023 recruiting class — Lawson Luckie and Pearce Spurlin.

Bowers is on pace to finish his collegiate career as one of the best at the position in history. The 2022 Mackey Award winner has already amassed 119 receptions for 1,824 yards and 20 touchdowns, along with 165 yards rushing on 15 carries and four scores on the ground through two seasons.

Bowers returns as the No. 1 option in the group, followed by Delp and Spurlin. Luckie recently underwent surgery to repair an ankle injury. The timetable for his return is unknown.

“It’s week to week. I won’t know exactly what [the time table] is,” Smart said. “We’ve had Arian [Smith] came back in three or four weeks from a similar injury. We’ve had guys take five weeks, guys take six weeks. I can’t tell you. I don’t know. It’s how he handles it and how he tolerates his recovery. Ron [Courson] and his staff are going to do the best job they can to get him back.”

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