Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers still not training due to foot injury

The Las Vegas Raiders have secured one of the most exciting offensive players in the 2024 NFL Draft when they selected the former tight end from Georgia Brock Bowers. He will be a key part of their offense when he is healthy again. Unfortunately for the Raiders, he has not practiced since last week due to a foot injury, according to Tashan Reed of The Athletic.

Las Vegas head coach Antonio Pierce said Wednesday that he expects Bowers to play in Week 1. “He has a foot injury and we just want to protect him.”

Brock Bowers made his NFL debut in the Las Vegas Raiders’ season opener against the Minnesota Vikings.

The Georgia Product was targeted twice and caught both passes for 25 yards during the 24-23 loss. One of those was a catch on a ball in the flats from the fullback position. Although it was a small sample size, people within the Raiders organization got to see his skills firsthand all offseason. According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, they're impressed with their new tight end.

“I just came back from the West Coast, stopped by the Raiders and talked to [head coach] Antonio Pierce. He said he was, quote, different. They're going to use that player all over the lineup. He's probably even better as a blocker than they thought he would be, but they think he's great after the catch. So not only do they plan on getting him the ball early and often, they expect him to embarrass people when he does that.

“You have Michael Mayer whom they drafted in the second round last year. Could use a few tight ends, but Bowers has made his presence known early in the pairing with Davante Adamshe's going to get the ball quite a bit. Some scouts thought he was the best player in the entire draft. He slipped to 13th, so they have an absolute star player here.”

Mayer caught a pass for seven yards in the season opener on Saturday. In his rookie season, he totaled 304 receiving yards and two touchdowns for Las Vegas.

Whether Bowers will take over those minutes entirely or a two-tight end set will be used remains to be seen. With Bowers' additional blocking abilities, he can theoretically be used as a decoy while Mayer runs the routes in a two-tight end set to keep the defense on its toes by using the dueling tight ends.

At Georgia, he was the primary tight end when he was on the field. Despite missing three games in 2023 due to an ankle injury, Bowers still caught 56 ​​passes for 714 yards and six touchdowns. On the block, he helped the Bulldogs' offensive line lead the running attack to 2,677 yards from the line of scrimmage and score 40 touchdowns that year.

Bowers also knows what it takes to win. During his time at Georgia, Bowers never lost a regular season game and helped the team reach the SEC title game each of the last three seasons. In total, he caught 175 passes for 2,538 yards and 26 touchdowns during his college career.

Looking ahead to his rookie season in the NFL, Bowers now wants to help strengthen a Raiders team that finished last year with an 8-9 record. They begin the regular season on the road against Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers in a divisional game on September 8.

Barkley Truax from On3 also contributed to this article.