The Las Vegas Raiders had a lot of needs going into the first-round of the 2024 NFL Draft, but when it was their turn to pick on Thursday night, they decided to throw those needs out the window in favor of taking the best available player.
That player turned out to be Brock Bowers and although he was the consensus top tight end in the draft, it was a bizarre pick by the Raiders, if only because they also used a high pick on a tight end last year when they selected Michael Mayer with the 35th overall pick.
Picking a tight end that high in back-to-back drafts in almost unheard of: Before this year, the last time it happened came 50 years ago. Back in 1973, the Buffalo Bills used the seventh overall pick on tight end Paul Seymour, and then they followed that up in 1974 by using the 18th overall pick on tight end Reuben Gant.
There's a reason you rarely see teams do this and that's because most teams have other holes to fill. For instance, the Raiders had needs at quarterback, cornerback and even offensive tackle, but they still decided to go with Bowers. It did make sense for them to pass on a quarterback when you consider that six had already been taken by the time they were on the clock at 13th overall, but the Raiders did have the option of taking a top tackle or they could have taken ANY DEFENSIVE PLAYER they wanted since no defensive players had been selected up to that point.
Pete Prisco gave the pick a "C" grade and that was mostly because of the fact that the Raiders used a high pick on Mayer last year and because they had other holes they could have filled.
According to Raiders general manager Tom Telesco, the reason for taking Bowers was simple: It was all about getting the best player left on their draft board.
"You try and stick to [best player available] when you can," Telesco said, via RaidersWire. "It's harder than you think sometimes because you're adding to the football team, and we know where we are today. We are looking for today and the future. But a player like Brock, just the scouting staff, where they have him, what they thought about him, what the coaching staff thought. He's really a pretty consensus guy."
Telesco, who was working his first draft as the GM of the Raiders, thinks there's plenty of room for both Mayer and Bowers to fit into the Raiders' offense.
"At Notre Dame, Michael was split out sometimes as a receiver," Telesco said. "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."
Now that Bowers is on the roster, Telesco doesn't think that will change things very much for Mayer.
"We love Michael Mayer. I love Michael Mayer," Telesco said. "He's a really good player, He's going to take another big jump this year, but we had a chance to add another dimension to the offense, whether it's tight end, hybrid receiver, whatever it is. We need more playmakers on that side of the ball, so he's going to help us there. High level player in college, true junior, very young, still developing, but he's got some natural football skills combined with some high level athletic ability and speed."
There's no denying that Bowers is one of the most talented players in the draft, but he might have ended up with the one team that could have trouble utilizing him, especially since their quarterback situation is still up in the air. Mayer only caught 27 passes for 304 yards last season as a rookie and if the Raiders don't get more production than that from Bowers, fans in Las Vegas will probably start scratching their heads about why the team decided to use their 2024 first-round pick on another tight end.
