Making the Pro Bowl is often a wild journey for many players. Some get it as a career award after multiple seasons of being overshadowed at their positions, while others get the nod early and subsequently.
For Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, though, making the Pro Bowl this year is more than a little weird. Bowers’ numbers would indicate a serious sophomore slump after his record-breaking rookie season, although he does have seven touchdowns on 64 receptions for 680 yards.
Raiders fans know that’s not the case, however. Bowers was hurt early, and the Raiders probably made his knee injury situation worse by trying to play him for a couple of weeks when he should have been shut down.
What they really know, though, is that Bowers was trapped trying to function in an offense with a line that couldn’t block and a bad quarterback, Geno Smith, who considers tight ends an afterthought.
Thought exercises are usually just that, but let’s try one anyway. Put Bowers on any other offense in the NFL, except for maybe that of the New York Jets, and try to imagine him not posting better numbers.
Yeah, good luck with that.
So what does all this mean going forward? Simply that the Raiders need to re-prioritize getting Bowers the ball going forward in 2026. Coach Pete Carroll almost certainly won’t be calling the shots, but whoever is will need to resurrect some of those short throws that allowed Bowers to get loose in the open field.
There are several reasons that didn’t happen this season, and Smith isn’t the only one. Bowers faced constant double teams throughout the season, especially once he got healthy, and this was part of a strategy to eliminate those short throws that would have taken some of the heat off Smith if he’d been more willing to make them.
One thing we do know is that Bowers can still find the end zone. He’s the heir apparent to Travis Kelce in the AFC West. He’s had four touchdowns in the Raiders last six games, and that includes a couple of bad games where the Raiders basically weren’t competitive. It also includes the elimination of the Raiders’ best receiver, Jakobi Meyers, who’s been busy helping to revive the Jacksonville Jaguars offense.
No one knows what owner Mark Davis is going to do at the end of the season, but the Raiders basically have two stud players, Bowers and defensive end Maxx Crosby, who also made the Pro Bowl. Crosby has also performed through constant double teams, and Las Vegas needs get Bowers back to the point where he can do that as well.