After drafting Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer at the beginning of the second round in 2023, there was talk that doubling up and taking Brock Bowers at pick 15 this past draft was a luxury pick. That “luxury” is paying immediate dividends for offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.
Bowers leads all NFL tight ends in targets (17), receptions (15), and receiving yards (156) through two weeks of the season. He’s garnering 23.9% of Las Vegas’ targets to start the season and it’s just the beginning for the Georgia product. Getsy is moving him all around the formation, finding matchup after matchup to exploit, and continuing to do so will open up space for the rest of their offensive weapons, namely Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers.
Bowers has already generated three explosive plays of 20 or more yards for the Raiders, showcasing his unique feel for space and manipulation tactics to create room for himself regardless of the play call. Bowers was targeted twice on third down, both in the second half, and caught both for a total of 38 yards. If he continues to earn trusted looks from Gardner Minshew on third down, he’ll start pulling defensive gravity even more. We want to see that out of rookies, and Bowers is making the most of his opportunities.
The Raiders come out in a 2x2 Pistol formation with Bowers lined up to the right as a receiver. They motion the running back to the left before the snap to shift the defense and give Bowers a touch more space in the middle of the field. Bowers stems his “in” route vertically toward the sideline, widening the defender, then cuts in. Minshew locates this in front of Bowers who makes a tough catch away from his body in traffic.
Subtle nuance in the route stem is one of Bowers’ hallmarks and gives him more space to make plays happen. Getting him matched up against corners and seeing him win in moments like this will give the Raiders and Getsy tons of confidence in his ability to be used all over the field.
Here are different examples of how Getsy created matchups for Bowers to exploit. With the bunch formation, motioning Meyers to the outside changes defensive responsibility just before the snap happens and Bowers works the middle of the field. They use him as an H-back and motion him out where he runs a wheel against a corner, which he clears, then works back to Minshew when he leaves the pocket. The possibilities for Bowers in this offense feel more exciting than what most remember a Luke Getsy offense feeling like when he was in Chicago. The adjustments made in the second half for Las Vegas helped propel the Raiders to a victory against the Ravens and generated some explosives from Bowers.
The Raiders come out with 12 personnel, two tight ends one running back, under center, and motion Meyers to the H-back position. On the snap, they run a play-action fake and Meyers attaches to the right-hand side of the offense to help block. They fully shift the offensive line to the left and Minshew loops around back to more of a true drop-back distance from under center. The movement shifts the middle linebacker left initially, then he course corrects back, mirroring Minshew. This is a two-receiver concept with Adams running a clear-out deep down the field and Bowers bending his “over” route back to the left. Bowers gets right behind the middle linebacker and bends this back into space for a big play.
There’s a certain tight end in the Raiders’ division that’s been running this play for a long time and that’s just how they drew it up. It’s key to get in the blindspot of the backer and make him believe Bowers is taking that across the field. Minshew played it perfectly and they were rewarded.
There will be a lot more coming from Bowers as he grows in his rookie season, but the early returns are just what the Raiders thought they were drafting in the first round. Continuing to create yards after the catch, explosive plays, and being a reliable target on third downs not only keeps the offense on time and effective, it gives the quarterback one less thing to worry about. Bowers is elevating the Raiders passing game and taking pressure off the big names, who showed up late in this ball game.
Keep making plays like this in crunch time and good things will happen.
