How Raiders’ Brock Bowers is building best season ever for a rookie tight end
Editor’s note: This is the 13th installment of a season-long series on a breakout star from the past week of NFL action. The Week 13 winner: Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers.
After the Raiders’ narrow loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Black Friday, Brock Bowers received praise from Travis Kelce.
The four-time All-Pro dapped up the rookie near midfield. He asked for a picture. He said he’d send his jersey over to Bowers’ locker, too — and asked for one in return.
It was Kelce, a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, who looked like the fan.
"Happy as hell for you," Kelce told Bowers. "Keep doing your thing."
There’s no reason to believe that he won’t.
Bowers had 10 catches on 14 targets for a season-high 140 yards and a touchdown against Kansas City, his latest dominant performance in what is developing into arguably the best-ever season for a rookie tight end.
The former Georgia star has an NFL-high 84 receptions for 884 yards (fourth in the league) and four touchdowns in 12 games. He’s just two receptions short of Sam LaPorta’s record for receptions by a rookie tight end — with five games left in the regular season. He's on pace for 1,252 receiving yards, which would break Mike Ditka's record of 1,076 by a rookie tight end, set way back in 1960. And Bowers' historic year has come amid a Raiders quarterback carousel, with Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder all taking snaps under center.
The 13th overall pick, Bowers has embraced being the Raiders’ No. 1 pass-catching option. Since Davante Adams was traded ahead of Week 7, Bowers is averaging 83.3 receiving yards per game, up from 64.0 in his first six games. His two 100-yard receiving games have come in the past three weeks, and he has just two drops this season, according to Pro Football Focus, an impressive feat considering he’s the league’s fourth-most targeted player (113).
Bowers has been more than a bright spot for the struggling Raiders. He looks like a budding superstar, living up to his billing as a generational prospect.
"He keeps finding a way to find the ball," Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said.
Why Bowers was successful in Week 13
He's been borderline unstoppable in the short and intermediate area of the field, but Bowers entered Friday’s game with just three receptions of 20-plus air yards in 11 appearances. He had two against the Chiefs: a 33-yard touchdown and a 29-yard reception, both of which came in the third quarter.
Kansas City defensive back Chamarri Conner was a frequent victim, as Bowers caught all five of his targets for 81 yards and the score when covered by the second-year pro.
Bowers started slowly against the Chiefs, with just three catches for 21 yards through two quarters. But he turned it on late in the second half, helping the Raiders to a near upset of the two-time defending champions.
"To be honest, sometimes out there I feel like I suck," Bowers admitted. "I’m just out there like, ‘I can’t do anything.’ Through that whole first half I was like, ‘I can’t make a freakin’ play out there.’ It started to open up a little bit toward the end."
It’s what stars do: elevate their play when it’s needed most.
"The bigger the moment, the bigger he stands up and makes plays," Pierce said. "It is impressive to watch, especially late in the ballgame making big plays for us, tough catches. [He's] just a really good football player."
As a former NFL linebacker himself, Pierce acknowledged that he wouldn’t want to cover Bowers.
"The last couple weeks, right, with Pat Surtain, and this week [Trent] McDuffie and the safeties. They're not really putting too many linebackers on him throughout the game," Pierce said. "And now we're seeing double teams and them really shifting their zone to him.
"And to be honest, I don't really think it matters, man. I think we got a really special player on our hands."
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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