Brock Bowers
Tight End, Georgia
Junior
Measurables (via University of Georgia Athletics)
Height: 6040 (6’4”)
Weight: 240 lbs
BIO
The former 4-star recruit out of Napa High School in California exploded on the scene as a true freshman in 2021 and has arguably been the best player (on both sides of the ball) for Georgia in their back-to-back national championship seasons. That is saying something. Not only standing out in the gauntlet of the SEC but in comparison to the pedigree of players Georgia has produced to the NFL – especially in the last two years.
No other TE in the last 53 seasons of college football has had as many touchdowns (20) in their first two seasons of playing time. The reigning Mackey Award winner for the country’s best TE seeks to further cement his stock as a potential top ten pick (at a non-premier position) come next spring.
KEY STATS (via Sports Reference CFB)
2021 – 14 games played: 56 rec/882 yards/13 TD. 4 Rushing Attempts/56 yards/1 TD.
2022 – 15 games played: 63 rec/942 yards/7 TD. 9 Rushing Attempts/109 yards/3 TD.
STRENGTHS
Athleticism:
Easily his most prominent trait. And it’s not just “looking good in shorts” either – although he projects to test very well at the combine. He utilizes every bit of his speed and athletic prowess which equates to big plays and efficient production. From uses to jet-sweeps (109 yards rushing), flying past defenders on routes, and to using his combination of power and burst for extending plays after the catch. Bowers is explosive in the open field and it’s very relevant when he’s schemed up for screen plays.
He is a violent runner when he gets the ball in his hands and shows balance and strength on top of being able to accelerate very quickly. His route running is more than sufficient for his position. Crossers and wheel routes are his specialty, but he could do a better job of being more consistent and refining his route tree. But he wins there because of his previously mentioned speed once he gets to the second level of defenders and as a catch-and-go threat.
Strong Hands / Contested Catches:
Relatively speaking, Bowers is not the biggest tight end prospect (Georgia has him at 6’4”, 230lbs), but that’s not the dynamic he brings to the game. He’s an offensive weapon that shows phenomenal focus, body control, and ball skills on top of his athletic tools. That translates to being extremely reliable at the catch point, whether he is wide-open or triple-covered. Even with that “smaller” frame as a TE (great frame for a WR), Bowers is an exceptional contested-catch specialist.
WEAKNESSES
Initial Separation:
The problem with Bowers is initially getting to that second level. Georgia and Todd Monken did a great job of scheming him open on a lot of plays, but he can get jammed at the line of scrimmage with press-man coverage and with either a DE or OLB chipping him. This stems from being too upright at the snap, and he often makes his first stride too long.
Slot defenders can then easily get their hands on him as he doesn’t “make himself small,” thus slowing down momentum. All of which are easily coachable. More frequent steps and compacting his explosion can do wonders for Bowers breaking free from the line of scrimmage. And as said before, once he is able to break that initial release, Bowers can really showcase himself as that outstanding receiving threat.
Could Improve as a Blocker
Bowers is a glorified slot receiver, and blocking should not be the primary focus of utilizing his skillset. He has the intangibles to be the centerpiece of any offense as a receiving threat – not as a primary run blocker. But it does come with the position. And he’s more than effective as a one-hit blocker in space, but asking him to sustain drives is not adequate.
Much of this is due to his previously mentioned technique at the line of scrimmage. Tenacity and being too upright are often his biggest downfalls in that regard. That lack of size could be accredited to his deficiencies as a blocker as well, as he often stays too narrow on that already smaller frame. And although powerful, his hand placement can be too late and too high often. Overall his blocking prowess isn’t bad. It isn’t great either, but not enough to be the demise of the prolific player that he is.
IDEAL FIT
Bowers isn’t just a complementary player. He has the intangibles to be the centerpiece of an entire offense with his versatility and impact as a pass-catcher. Other than his size, his flaws are all coachable – even though said holes in his game are not complementary to what he can bring to an offense. He’s the type of player defensive coordinators are going to have to scheme around, even in his rookie season.
Georgia TE Brock Bowers (19) – John Bazemore / Associated Press
SUMMARY
In a 2024 NFL Draft class potentially filled with several blue-chip prospects at premier positions, it’s easy to lose sight of how special of a player Brock Bowers is. If he was eligible to declare for last year’s draft, there’s good reason to believe he would have cracked the top half of the first round, even with the abundance of TE talent in that class.
You could even argue if he was able to enter after his freshman year, he would have been an early-round selection: he posted 56 catches for 882 yards and 13 TDs in his first year in Athens. And in this year’s class that can potentially boast the likes of Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Drake Maye, Bowers is still likely to find himself in that same regard as a top 10 player. Drafting a tight end in the first round has been seen as a fallacy as of late, but Bowers isn’t just a complementary player.
Generational is a term often overused when evaluating players, but the former 4-star recruit from Napa High School in California is just that. It’s not the potential in Kyle Pitts or just being the overall sound player in T.J. Hockenson. It’s the flat-out dominance since the moment he stepped on the field at Georgia two years ago – on the biggest stage with winning back-to-back national championships – with still a third to go. Tight end is said to be one of the hardest positions to transition to in the NFL. But much like his tenure with the Bulldogs, Bowers can be seen as a perennial pro bowler – even right away in his first year in the NFL.
