TE Brock Bowers, LV (1 Viewer)

[Ilov80s]

I’m sure he’s still a bit banged up. Regardless, his usage (or lack thereof) is very concerning…

It's a Tre Tucker offense. Jeanty and Bowers are just going to live in it

 

[RaidersAreOne]

It's a combination of Geno spreading the ball around + our O looking bad for the most part.

 

[dkp993]

It's a combination of Geno spreading the ball around + our O looking bad for the most part.

Oline is getting dominated, especially this week. Geno has been running for his life every game.

 

[RaidersAreOne]

It's a combination of Geno spreading the ball around + our O looking bad for the most part.

Oline is getting dominated, especially this week. Geno has been running for his life every game.

He's also still visibly hurt:

https://x.com/FB_FilmAnalysis/status/1970146844333523306

 

[dkp993]

It's a combination of Geno spreading the ball around + our O looking bad for the most part.

Oline is getting dominated, especially this week. Geno has been running for his life every game.

He's also still visibly hurt:

https://x.com/FB_FilmAnalysis/status/1970146844333523306

Agreed. Clearly slowed a bit by the knee and I’ve noticed times, specifically jumping, where he’s very cautious with the knee.

 

[LawFitz]

I’ve noticed times, specifically jumping, where he’s very cautious with the knee.

Yup

I strongly suspect at this point that Bowser is toughing out a more severe knee injury than has been reported.

 

[dkp993]

I’ve noticed times, specifically jumping, where he’s very cautious with the knee.

Yup

I strongly suspect at this point that Bowser is toughing out a more severe knee injury than has been reported.

I hope not. But as a person who’s had knee issues (4 surgeries between both knees) I can also attest to the confidence factor even when the issue isn’t “major”. The second you are even thinking about your knees you’re not your full self.

 

[bolzano]

How’s he looking? is he still sporting the knee brace? Is Geno just not looking his way? Are we pushing the panic button?

 

[RaidersAreOne]

How’s he looking? is he still sporting the knee brace? Is Geno just not looking his way? Are we pushing the panic button?

Yup he has the big brace still. He's not the same animal right now and is clearly being hampered by it.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

My worst draft pick of the year so far

 

[calcinorjones]

He’s been lousy

 

[bolzano]

My worst draft pick of the year so far

Word.

 

[dkp993]

My worst draft pick of the year so far

My AJB pick says hello.*

Though my Nabers and Bowers keepers are about to ask to hold their beer.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

My AJB pick says hello.*

Ya my bad. I have him too

 

[KellysHeroes]

My AJB pick says hello.*

Ya my bad. I have him too

Have them both on the same team

 

[bolzano]

The injury is a legit excuse. However, I’m not sure it tells the whole story. Even in game one, he was ceding a lot of snaps to the other TEs and he was out targeted by Meyers. Indeed, he hasn’t been the target leader in any of the games thus far. I’m afraid that’s not going to change much.

Folks were warning that Geno doesn’t like to throw to TEs. But, I figured that was irrelevant because Bowers is a generational type talent, so they’ll feature him anyway, I’m not so sure anymore…

 

[bolzano]

The injury is a legit excuse. However, I’m not sure it tells the whole story. Even in game one, he was ceding a lot of snaps to the other TEs and he was out targeted by Meyers. Indeed, he hasn’t been the target leader in any of the games thus far. I’m afraid that’s not going to change much.

Folks were warning that Geno doesn’t like to throw to TEs. But, I figured that was irrelevant because Bowers is a generational type talent, so they’ll feature him anyway, I’m not so sure anymore…

To be clear, I definitely think he’s an elite talent, neck and neck with Kittle for the best TE in the game. It’s just that I’m not sure Geno and the Raiders will feature him enough to justify the second round price tag.

 

[Drake Hater]

All my teams with Bowers are doing the worst. Definitely a bust so far.

 

[KellysHeroes]

The injury is a legit excuse. However, I’m not sure it tells the whole story. Even in game one, he was ceding a lot of snaps to the other TEs and he was out targeted by Meyers. Indeed, he hasn’t been the target leader in any of the games thus far. I’m afraid that’s not going to change much.

Folks were warning that Geno doesn’t like to throw to TEs. But, I figured that was irrelevant because Bowers is a generational type talent, so they’ll feature him anyway, I’m not so sure anymore…

To be clear, I definitely think he’s an elite talent, neck and neck with Kittle for the best TE in the game. It’s just that I’m not sure Geno and the Raiders will feature him enough to justify the second round price tag.

Samething about Geno, he's never played with a talent like Bowers. And he's more of WR/TE hybrid, add in their other passing options are not the best; you figured BB was in for a huge yr with improved QB, improved coaching and improved offense... but NOPE

 

[Capella]

Watched like 2/3 of that game today and just realized I never heard his name once.

 

[bolzano]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

 

[bolzano]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

Do you know exactly what Brock's injury is? As a Kittle guy, you full well know there's games where Kittle would explode and games where he went very quiet. You also completely ignored the fact that he had over 100 in the week he was healthy this year

Yes, I acknowledged game one. I pointed out the unexpectedly low snap count and being out targeted by Meyers.

IMO, there’s reason to be concerned that he’s not going to be featured like he was last season. While he’s been playing hurt, I don’t think we can just ignore those data points, not when they support what fantasy analysts had been warning us about. Feel free to dismiss them if you’d like though.

 

[bolzano]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

Do you know exactly what Brock's injury is? As a Kittle guy, you full well know there's games where Kittle would explode and games where he went very quiet. You also completely ignored the fact that he had over 100 in the week he was healthy this year

Yes, I acknowledged game one. I pointed out the unexpectedly low snap count and being out targeted by Meyers.

IMO, there’s reason to be concerned that he’s not going to be featured like he was last season. While he’s been playing hurt, I don’t think we can just ignore those data points, not when they support what fantasy analysts had been warning us about. Feel free to dismiss them if you’d like though.

Then I guess it's a good thing you never gave up on Kittle because Kittle had the same thing happening to him in quite a few games lmao

He hasn’t been featured for three straight games, Moreover, it’s questionable whether he was even featured in game one. Before his injury he was only playing something like 50-60% of snaps.

 

[dkp993]

My AJB pick says hello.*

Ya my bad. I have him too

Have them both on the same team

Yep, and Nabers. (And Worthy). Felt good going into the year. That seems so long ago now…..

 

[bolzano]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

Do you know exactly what Brock's injury is? As a Kittle guy, you full well know there's games where Kittle would explode and games where he went very quiet. You also completely ignored the fact that he had over 100 in the week he was healthy this year

Yes, I acknowledged game one. I pointed out the unexpectedly low snap count and being out targeted by Meyers.

IMO, there’s reason to be concerned that he’s not going to be featured like he was last season. While he’s been playing hurt, I don’t think we can just ignore those data points, not when they support what fantasy analysts had been warning us about. Feel free to dismiss them if you’d like though.

Then I guess it's a good thing you never gave up on Kittle because Kittle had the same thing happening to him in quite a few games lmao

He hasn’t been featured for three straight games, Moreover, it’s questionable whether he was even featured in game one. Before his injury he was only playing something like 50-60% of snaps.

We get it man, you don't like Brock and conveniently ignore the fact that Kittle had these dry spells too when he was COMPLETELY HEALTHY

My point doesn’t really rest on what Kittle has done in the past. You can substitute prime Gronkowski/ Kelce if you want. That said, I don’t recall Kittle ever being an afterthought in the Niners offense.

It’s about Bowers and him not being THE featured part of the passing game. You can discount what’s happened thus far because of the injury. But, the point is that there may be other underlying things that are impacting his production, which fantasy analysts (e.g., Bloom/ Harris) warned us about before the season. Again, they noted that Geno doesn’t have a history of heavy TE usage.

 

[bolzano]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

Do you know exactly what Brock's injury is? As a Kittle guy, you full well know there's games where Kittle would explode and games where he went very quiet. You also completely ignored the fact that he had over 100 in the week he was healthy this year

Yes, I acknowledged game one. I pointed out the unexpectedly low snap count and being out targeted by Meyers.

IMO, there’s reason to be concerned that he’s not going to be featured like he was last season. While he’s been playing hurt, I don’t think we can just ignore those data points, not when they support what fantasy analysts had been warning us about. Feel free to dismiss them if you’d like though.

Then I guess it's a good thing you never gave up on Kittle because Kittle had the same thing happening to him in quite a few games lmao

He hasn’t been featured for three straight games, Moreover, it’s questionable whether he was even featured in game one. Before his injury he was only playing something like 50-60% of snaps.

We get it man, you don't like Brock and conveniently ignore the fact that Kittle had these dry spells too when he was COMPLETELY HEALTHY

My point doesn’t really rest on what Kittle has done in the past. You can substitute prime Gronkowski/ Kelce if you want. That said, I don’t recall Kittle ever being an afterthought in the Niners offense.

It’s about Bowers and him not being THE featured part of the passing game. You can discount what’s happened thus far because of the injury. But, the point is that there may be other underlying things that are impacting his production, which fantasy analysts (e.g., Bloom/ Harris) warned us about before the season. Again, they noted that Geno doesn’t have a history of heavy TE usage.

You're the one who brought Kittle up first and how he was always the featured man. You were incorrect. There were games where he was not, in fact, the featured man or even heavily involved whatsoever. But recency bias always wins out. Brock isn't getting 12 targets a game so he's useless. You're right

Bruh…

When did I ever say Bowers is useless? When did I say that I don’t like him? In fact, I said he’s a generational talent, and I’m saying that he may be misused/ underutilized by Geno and Chip.

Is Bowers going to be THE DUDE in the Raiders passing game? If he’s not, then he’s not gonna return second round value. Therefore, we drafted poorly. I’m sure we will revisit this throughout the season. I hope you’re right- he’s just hurt, Geno and Chip are, say, using him as a decoy, and in a few weeks he’ll be back to producing like it’s 2024 all over again. I have my doubts though.

 

[Buckna]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

Do you know exactly what Brock's injury is? As a Kittle guy, you full well know there's games where Kittle would explode and games where he went very quiet. You also completely ignored the fact that he had over 100 in the week he was healthy this year

Yes, I acknowledged game one. I pointed out the unexpectedly low snap count and being out targeted by Meyers.

IMO, there’s reason to be concerned that he’s not going to be featured like he was last season. While he’s been playing hurt, I don’t think we can just ignore those data points, not when they support what fantasy analysts had been warning us about. Feel free to dismiss them if you’d like though.

Then I guess it's a good thing you never gave up on Kittle because Kittle had the same thing happening to him in quite a few games lmao

He hasn’t been featured for three straight games, Moreover, it’s questionable whether he was even featured in game one. Before his injury he was only playing something like 50-60% of snaps.

We get it man, you don't like Brock and conveniently ignore the fact that Kittle had these dry spells too when he was COMPLETELY HEALTHY

My point doesn’t really rest on what Kittle has done in the past. You can substitute prime Gronkowski/ Kelce if you want. That said, I don’t recall Kittle ever being an afterthought in the Niners offense.

It’s about Bowers and him not being THE featured part of the passing game. You can discount what’s happened thus far because of the injury. But, the point is that there may be other underlying things that are impacting his production, which fantasy analysts (e.g., Bloom/ Harris) warned us about before the season. Again, they noted that Geno doesn’t have a history of heavy TE usage.

Not just Geno. Carol has never featured a TE in his offenses, he once traded for an in his prime Jimmy Graham and turned him into a JAG. The thought was Bowers was more of a WR and would be okay or they'd morph the offense to him, it's early but not looking good so far.

 

[bolzano]

Can we relax lol. Before his injury in week 1 he had 5 catches and over 100 yards.

I’m a Niners fan. So let’s use Kittle as a comparison.

Kittle is kinda injury prone and thus I’ve seen him play hurt a lot. The Niners will feed him regardless, as he’s THE DUDE in their passing game. What bothers me is that I’m not seeing that happening with Bowers…

Do you know exactly what Brock's injury is? As a Kittle guy, you full well know there's games where Kittle would explode and games where he went very quiet. You also completely ignored the fact that he had over 100 in the week he was healthy this year

Yes, I acknowledged game one. I pointed out the unexpectedly low snap count and being out targeted by Meyers.

IMO, there’s reason to be concerned that he’s not going to be featured like he was last season. While he’s been playing hurt, I don’t think we can just ignore those data points, not when they support what fantasy analysts had been warning us about. Feel free to dismiss them if you’d like though.

Then I guess it's a good thing you never gave up on Kittle because Kittle had the same thing happening to him in quite a few games lmao

He hasn’t been featured for three straight games, Moreover, it’s questionable whether he was even featured in game one. Before his injury he was only playing something like 50-60% of snaps.

We get it man, you don't like Brock and conveniently ignore the fact that Kittle had these dry spells too when he was COMPLETELY HEALTHY

My point doesn’t really rest on what Kittle has done in the past. You can substitute prime Gronkowski/ Kelce if you want. That said, I don’t recall Kittle ever being an afterthought in the Niners offense.

It’s about Bowers and him not being THE featured part of the passing game. You can discount what’s happened thus far because of the injury. But, the point is that there may be other underlying things that are impacting his production, which fantasy analysts (e.g., Bloom/ Harris) warned us about before the season. Again, they noted that Geno doesn’t have a history of heavy TE usage.

Not just Geno. Carol has never featured a TE in his offenses, he once traded for an in his prime Jimmy Graham and turned him into a JAG. The thought was Bowers was more of a WR and would be okay or they'd morph the offense to him, it's early but not looking good so far.

I actually think you meant to say, "it's early, and he looked pretty good week 1 before his injury, but other than that things haven't looked good"

As I mentioned before, his week one usage was concerning too. The Raiders were basically treating him as a passing down asset (i.e., he was playing on third downs and two min drill, while ceding snaps on early downs). So, it didn’t look like he was THE focal point of the offense (unlike last season). He had catches of ~40 and ~30 yards in the third quarter that made up for it. But, you don’t want to be relying on big plays every game. See the analysis below.

The Raiders retained their top two tight ends from last season in Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer. Over the last five weeks of last season, Bowers played 92% of Las Vegas' offensive snaps to Mayer's 73%. Bowers was playing 74% of the snaps out of 11 personnel on early downs compared to 83% on third downs, while the two were almost always on the field together in two-tight-end sets. The preseason suggested that Mayer could be cutting into Bowers’ snaps in 11 personnel, particularly on early downs.

Those playing time concerns played out over the first three quarters, where Bowers played in 32 of a possible 45 snaps. Bowers was pretty consistently on the field in two- and three-tight-end sets, but he only played 15 of 27 snaps in 11 personnel over the three quarters. He was consistently on the field on third downs and during the two-minute drill. The Raiders had eight third downs and seven snaps in two-minute drills.

On 14 snaps out of 11 personnel on early downs, outside of the two-minute drill, Bowers played three snaps, Mayer played seven, and Ian Thomas played four. Typically, teams will run more plays out of 11 personnel on early downs outside of the two-minute drill than third down or two-minute-drill plays combined. This means we should expect Bowers’ snap rate to be even lower than it was in the first three quarters of this game.

Bowers suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. It does not sound like it will be a long-term injury, but there is a chance it could impact him in the short term. Bowers caught five passes for 103 yards with multiple big plays against the Patriots defense. He remains a must-start option despite the playing time, but there will be some games where his stat line won’t live up to his reputation because he’s running fewer routes.

NFL Week 1 Recap: Immediate fantasy football takeaways from Sunday's games

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2025.

www.pff.com

 

[zamboni]

The obvious big difference from last year is that Jeanty wasn’t there. Last year, the offense certainly wasn’t going to go through Zamir White or Sincere McCormick or Alexander Mattison. Even the underneath looks that Bowers lived on is being funneled a lot to Jeanty now.

 

[bolzano]

I mean, Bowers is basically just a big WR. So, if they want to use Mayer/ Thomas for blocking purposes and Geno likes to throw to WRs, then line up Bowers in the slot or outside. He’s way better than Meyers, Tucker, and Thornton.

 

[menobrown]

I mean, Bowers is basically just a big WR. So, if they want to use Mayer/ Thomas for blocking purposes and Geno likes to throw to WRs, then line up Bowers in the slot or outside. He’s way better than Meyers, Tucker, and Thornton.

Agree and it's mind blowing they don't see it this way.

A lot of rumors, which all track, that McVay tried trading up to draft him because he viewed him as someone who could do Puka things. He can, love Puka but I seriously think if you gave him a full training camp and put him in Puka's role you'd see no drop off. This is not a guy you leave off the field except for breathers.

But all of that is secondary, distantly so IMO, for his regression. He's not close to fully healthy, probably should have sat a game or two out. Knee sprains are few week ordeals, so he should be be able to get healthier as the weeks go by.

 

[LawFitz]

He's not close to fully healthy, probably should have sat a game or two out

So much about this overall situation can be explained with this alone. If/once it resolves this season, then we can just judge how he is being utilized. Hurt Bowser is not the same as Bald Bowser.

 

[MrSoup]

Just by watching, you can clearly see he’s hindered by the knee. He doesn’t fully trust cutting on it yet. He does not look the same. Hopefully it gets better with time. Wouldn’t mind him missing a week or two if needed to get right. Raiders don’t hit their bye until week 8.

I would be trying to buy low on him if I wasn’t already an owner.

 

[ponchsox]

DNP Thursday

 

[JohnnyU]

DNP Thursday

Go Colts

 

[Ilov80s]

What a rough year for the TE position

 

[KellysHeroes]

Just by watching, you can clearly see he’s hindered by the knee. He doesn’t fully trust cutting on it yet. He does not look the same. Hopefully it gets better with time. Wouldn’t mind him missing a week or two if needed to get right. Raiders don’t hit their bye until week 8.

I would be trying to buy low on him if I wasn’t already an owner.

Honestly, wouldn't mind at all if he took a couple off

 

[bolzano]

What a rough year for the TE position

It’s not his fault, but Bowers has been a disaster.

This isn’t necessarily a setback though. It’s possible that it was a designed day off. We probably won’t find out till tomorrow.

 

[Ilov80s]

What a rough year for the TE position

It’s not his fault, but Bowers has been a disaster.

This isn’t necessarily a setback though. It’s possible that it was a designed day off. We probably won’t find out till tomorrow.

Yep. Not Kittle's fault either. Just been some bad breaks.

 

[bolzano]

Dr. Chao thinks it may just be a rest day

https://x.com/ProFootballDoc/status/1973934235397599732

 

[LawFitz]

He should have been taking Wed/Thurs off from go IMO. Even if it actually was minor to begin with, conservative management was and is in order for a player of his caliber with any kind of knee tweak.

 

[Faust]

Adam Schefter
No practice for a second straight day for Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, who has been battling a knee injury.

https://x.com/adamschefter/status/1974181631574618551?s=61

 

[ATB]

He should not play. Maybe he will, but he shouldn't. Needs the rest at this point.

 

[JohnnyU]

It's not his injury, a doctor in here spoke to it. He's just getting phased out of the offense, not being the featured weapon he was before, blah blah blah, blahbity blah.

WTF?

 

[JohnnyU]

It's not his injury, a doctor in here spoke to it. He's just getting phased out of the offense, not being the featured weapon he was before, blah blah blah, blahbity blah.

WTF?

Being sarcastic just in case you can't tell

Alrighty then

 

[menobrown]

It's not his injury, a doctor in here spoke to it. He's just getting phased out of the offense, not being the featured weapon he was before, blah blah blah, blahbity blah.

No. It's the knee. He shouldn't have been playing through it. In fact, if he was becoming less of a target in this offense, he would NOT have been playing and they would have given him time to properly heal.

Before week one when he injured his knee his playing time and route running participation was significantly less then his rookie season. With Mayer being out they've had to use him more then they've wanted to these past few weeks but I don't think that's an indication of how much they intend to play him when he and Mayer are both healthy.

This offense has also no doubt chose to feature players like Tre Tucker some weeks, two by my count.

So to me it's both usage and injury but the injury is the bigger issue right now by far.

 

[Footballdaz]

PLEASE SIT OUT BROCK!!!!
Get the knee right. Don't need this lingering all freaking year.
I'll be lucky to squeeze another week out of J Johnson. That's if he's healthy. If not,it's Tommy Terrible time.

 

[bolzano]

It's not his injury, a doctor in here spoke to it. He's just getting phased out of the offense, not being the featured weapon he was before, blah blah blah, blahbity blah.

No. It's the knee. He shouldn't have been playing through it. In fact, if he was becoming less of a target in this offense, he would NOT have been playing and they would have given him time to properly heal.

Before week one when he injured his knee his playing time and route running participation was significantly less then his rookie season. With Mayer being out they've had to use him more then they've wanted to these past few weeks but I don't think that's an indication of how much they intend to play him when he and Mayer are both healthy.

This offense has also no doubt chose to feature players like Tre Tucker some weeks, two by my count.

So to me it's both usage and injury but the injury is the bigger issue right now by far.

Between the injury and usage concerns, it’s pretty clear the odds are against Bowers returning second round value.

 

[bolzano]

There’s continued optimism that #Raiders star tight end Brock Bowers (knee) will end up being able to play Sunday vs. the Colts, a source tells
@CBSSports
.Missed practice yesterday and may not practice today but there’s continued optimism he’ll end up being available Sunday.

https://x.com/mzenitz/status/1974129891093430687

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Best thing I can spin out of this situation is that this is a one o'clock start where I can sub someone if he's out at the last minute. The main thing I hate is drafting guys who play a lot of 4pm or later games.