Despite having bigger needs, the Las Vegas Raiders took the proverbial "best player available" when they made tight end Brock Bowers the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. He rewarded the boldness of that move by delivering a historic season for a rookie tight end in which he caught 112 passes for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns.
The upgrade to Geno Smith under center will be great for the entire Raiders' offense. Even if Bowers doesn't top 150 targets again this year, he will be the main beneficiary of a more efficient quarterback.
Back in May, Dalton Wasserman of Pro Football Focus listed Bowers as his top candidate to become the NFL's best tight end this year. More recently, PFF's John Kosko released his overall rankings for the position, and Bowers came in at No. 2 behind 49ers veteran George Kittle.
Brock Bowers' path to being declared the best TE in the NFL is clear
"You might argue that this is a generous ranking for Bowers after one season in the NFL, but a changing of the guard may be near after what he accomplished as a rookie," Kosko wrote. "The Georgia product ranked second in PFF WAR and third in PFF overall grade in 2024. Despite dealing with arguably the worst quarterback room in the NFL, he produced an all-time rookie season."
As a result of having to learn an entire NFL offense, it usually takes rookie tight ends some time to become complete players. There's just no easy way to seamlessly go from the college ranks to being a high-level pass-catcher and pass-blocker in the NFL. While Bowers was certainly prolific catching the ball as a rookie last year, he is not exempt from this rule.
Widely regarded as the most complete tight end in the league, Kittle had the second-best PFF run-blocking grade at the position last year, clocking in at 70.8. His pass-blocking grade wasn't as good, 62.8, but it was still top-35 among tight ends.
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Bowers, on the other hand, posted a 56.1 run-blocking grade and a 51.6 pass-blocking grade, both of which landed outside the top 40 for tight ends. How he was deployed is somewhat to blame for that, as just 287 of his 956 total snaps were considered run-blocking opportunities, per PFF.
In his three seasons at Georgia, Bowers' lowest PFF run-blocking grade was 62.4, and he had two seasons where he topped 73.5. It may only be a question of the game slowing down for him in the NFL, at which point he will become a noticeably good blocker.
By proving that he is a capable blocker as well this season, Bowers should be able to close the gap in these rankings. Eventually, he should unseat Kittle as the NFL's best tight, and once he takes that throne, he may not give it up for quite some time.
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