The Las Vegas Raiders entered the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft with clear needs on offense. Still searching for their future franchise quarterback and a right tackle to protect him, new general manager Tom Telesco picked one of the top offensive weapons in the draft in Georgia tight end Brock Bowers instead.
So, how can it still be hard to process what happened in Detroit on Thursday?
According to Telesco, who met with the media after the first round concluded, Brock Bowers was simply an offensive weapon he couldn’t pass up.
Read More: Las Vegas Raiders shock NFL Draft, select TE Brock Bowers in first round
“Yeah, I mean, and also we’re looking to add more playmakers to the offense, and they come in all shapes and sizes, in all different positions,” Telesco said when the “best available player” question was asked to start the press conference. “But you get a chance to add just another dimension to the offensive, whether it’s a tight end, hybrid receiver, whatever it is, you need more playmakers on that side of the ball. So, I think he’s really going to help us there and I feel like he’s a highlevel player in college; a true junior, he’s 21 years old, so he’s very young still, still developing. But he has some natural football skills, combined with some high-level athletic ability and speed, so yeah, I’m really happy to have him.”
Telesco’s reasoning is sound, and it’s hard not to like Brock Bowers. This was not a reach pick Raider Nation became accustomed to under the second reign of John Gruden with then-GM Mike Mayock. This wasn’t taking Clelin Ferrell fourth overall. Bowers was a consensus Top 10 pick in almost every mock draft performed by analysts who do this for a living. Most had Bowers as a Top 5 pick.
Still, despite sleeping on it last night, it’s hard to know how to feel about the Raiders’ selection. Not because of the player, but because of where their roster is now.
The case for the Raiders picking Brock Bowers
Tom Telesco had to do something during this NFL Draft to help fix the anemic Raiders offense. Last season, the unit finished 23rd in scoring and never really clicked despite some bright moments from fourth-round rookie quarterback Aidan O’Connell. It didn’t seem to have much of an identity until late in the season under Antonio Pierce. Even then, it wasn’t ever consistent enough to make enough noise. While talented in spots — including at receiver with Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers and rookie Tre Tucker — the Raiders needed to think long-term about the quarterback position and the right side of the offensive line.
- Davante Adams, 2023 stats: 103 receptions, 1,114 yards, 11.1 yards per catch, eight touchdowns
- Jakobi Meyers, 2023 stats: 71 receptions, 807 yards, 11.4 yards per catch, eight touchdowns
- Tre Tucker, 2023 stats: 19 receptions, 331 yards, 17.42 yards per catch, two touchdowns
Telesco’s assessment that his team needed more offensive playmakers is correct.
So many were surprised by the Brock Bowers’ selection because Las Vegas nabbed Michael Mayer in the 2023 NFL Draft, executed by former general manager Dave Ziegler. Mayer, who started slowly in 2023 but finished the season with a respectable 27 catches for 304 yards and two touchdowns, was seen as the future of the position for the franchise.
But for Telesco, and rightfully so, you can’t have too much depth at any one position, including tight end when a player of Brock Bowers’ ability is available.
“(It) Makes it a little bit easier, fully knowing that we have Michael Mayer, who is an excellent tight end, but there’s no rule in the NFL that you can only play one,” Telesco said of the second-year player, Mayer. “We can play two tight ends; we can move people around. At Notre Dame, Michael was split out sometimes as a receiver. Brock has been split as a receiver, Brock’s even played some running back, and then our receivers can go inside and outside, so it’ll be a nice little group to work with.”
Therein lies the entire crux of why this pick will go down as brilliant or a missed opportunity — creativity on offense. That will be on new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and head coach Antonio Pierce. The key to the Brock Bowers pick working for the Raiders is whether or not Getsy can be creative enough with two tight end sets to unleash the plethora of Bowers’ abilities. It certainly should help O’Connell and recently inked veteran quarterback Gardiner Minshew, as they’ll have another weapon they can target.
“Brock Bowers isn’t a TE; he is a WEAPON OF MASS RECEPTION,” former first-round draft pick Robert Griffin III posted on X.com after the pick. “He is what you want from a TE averaging 14.5 yards per reception, a RB averaging 10.2 yards per carry and a WR with 26 touchdown receptions in 3 years at Georgia. Raiders fans got them a blue blood who raids the end zone.”
You cannot dislike Brock Bowers as a player. The Raiders didn’t reach and they got a great one. The key question heading into training camp and the 2024 season will be: can they use him correctly in Getsy’s offense?
The case against the Raiders selecting Brock Bowers
Again, let me reiterate that the Brock Bowers pick at 13th overall was not bad. It was just surprising, especially considering the needs the Raiders still need to address on Day 2 of the NFL Draft. Those needs included an upgrade at right tackle to protect whomever the Raiders’ starting quarterback is in 2024.
And, yes, the Raiders can still address that need in Rounds 2 or 3. They did miss a golden opportunity to draft two of the best offensive linemen available in this draft: Taliese Fuaga, who was taken one pick later by the New Orleans Saints and will now protect former Raiders QB Derek Carr, and Troy Fautanu from Washington, who was picked by the Steelers at No. 20.
“There’s just different ways to attack people week to week and the more options we have available in the tight end room and receiver room, the better.”
Raiders general manager, Tom Telesco on selecting TE Brock Bowers
It points to the Raiders perhaps believing third-year tackle Thayer Munford Jr. is the answer on the right side. Either way, the Raiders still need to find depth and help at right guard, as it doesn’t seem Jordan Meredith is the one they plan on starting next season.
Then there is the need for an outside cornerback to play opposite last year’s surprise acquisition, Jack Jones. Chatter leading up to the draft had Telesco and Las Vegas high on Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold, who was selected later in the first round by the Detroit Lions. Then there was Quinton Mitchell of Toledo, who many pegged as, at worst, a mid-first-round pick. Not only did the Raiders not go defense in the first round, but overall, neither did the rest of the league. With six quarterbacks selected (tied for the most in league history with the historic 1983 NFL Draft class) and seven wide receivers selected in the first round (tied for the most in NFL Draft history), offense was on the mind of league GMs, including Telesco.
“But with a player like Brock, just with the scouting staff, where they had him, what they thought about him, what the coaching staff thought, he was really pretty much a consensus guy,” Telesco said of the selection
Even if that’s true and Telesco and his staff are all-in on Brock Bowers, we’ll have to wait until Days 2 and 3 to see how or if they address their biggest needs remaining.
What happened with being “aggressive” for a QB?
With draft day hype in full effect, the Raiders were rumored to be aggressively pursuing a trade up to grab their quarterback of the future. If not, they were said to favor Michael Penix Jr. at pick 13. With Penix going to Atlanta at No. 8 and Oregon’s Bo Nix going at No. 12 to archrival the Denver Broncos, even if the Raiders wanted a quarterback, a true first-rounder wasn’t available. So how aggressive were they in trying to get that forever quarterback?
“Not particularly hard, not particularly hard,” Telesco said of Las Vegas attempting to move up for a signal caller. “We looked into it like I said in the pre-draft press conference. We kind of had a plan to do maybe move up if the opportunity was there. It wasn’t there, kept moving.”
For those upset the Raiders didn’t move up, there’s your answer. You can’t force a trade on a team and as the draft board fell, with those record six quarterbacks going early, a genuine opportunity never arose for Telesco. That means the Raiders have to kick the quarterback question can down the street yet another season.
The Raiders’ pick of Brock Bowers in the first round was a shock to most, but it has the potential to be a monumental chess move if the team can use him effectively and creatively. The team still has plenty of picks to address some of its needs and the full scope of how this all fits together will come into view sometime late Saturday when the NFL Draft concludes.