Georgia Bulldogs football legend Brock Bowers didn’t expect the Las Vegas Raiders to be the franchise calling his name on the first night of the 2024 NFL draft. The Raiders didn’t scout him as much as other teams.
Still, Bowers was selected by the team he “least expected” to be picked by.
It’s actually kind of funny, it’s always like the team you least expect to pick you. I didn’t talk to them a ton, I talked to other teams a lot more and then all of a sudden I’m sitting there on draft night and I get a call. Me and my agent are talking and Las Vegas isn’t even in the picture really,” Bowers said.
“ … All of a sudden I get a call and it says Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I said, ‘Should I pick this up?’ and he said, ‘Hell yeah pick it up!’”
Bowers’s arrival in Nevada was given mixed reviews in the immediate aftermath. Quickly, though, Bowers proved the doubters wrong.
Bowers broke the rookie tight end receptions recordduring the 2024 season. He opened up about that in his recent conversation with Raiders.com’s Levi Edwards.
“I was trying the hardest not to think about it. But at the same time when you see everything [on the internet] and you’re getting tagged in stuff and it’s like, ‘Oh man, he might break these records’ and stuff. It’s pretty crazy seeing all that and looking back on it, it’s pretty cool,” Bowers said.
With Geno Smith now in tow, Bowers has a chance to make more important catches on bigger stages in 2025.
Regardless, the Georgia Bulldogs football legend has already solidified himself in Raider lore.