Lynn Bowden Jr. was the surprise story of the Raiders’ final roster cuts on Saturday. Just days after GM Mike Mayock talked him up, Bowden Jr. was sent to Miami for a 2021 fourth-round pick.
But how does that happen just five months after being drafted in the third round?
“According to a person close to the situation, Bowden was decisively ‘beat out’ as a running back and return man,” Vinny Bonsignore reported on Saturday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Another person with knowledge of the situation indicated Bowden ‘never quite seemed to fit in.’ ”
The question, then, is who beat out Bowden Jr. so decisively?
The Raiders only kept three running backs and, unlike the other running backs on the roster, Bowden Jr. was being groomed to play multiple positions. His role was to be the ‘Joker’ in Jon Gruden’s offense, but based on the three running backs the Raiders kept (Josh Jacobs, Jalen Richard, and Devontae Booker), it looks like Gruden just scrapped the ‘Joker’ idea.
So Bowden Jr. didn’t just get beat out for the job.
He was apparently so unimpressive in training camp that Gruden gave up on his position altogether.
Of all the stories from training camp, the reports of his lack of speed and burst were definitely the most concerning. Combine that with his slow progression in Gruden’s offense and it created the perfect storm for the Raiders to give up on Bowden Jr. even before his first NFL snap.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Jhon wants to build a winner 1 player doesn’t make you one. its gonna take the whole team to become just that he obviously saw something we didn’t as our great late owner would say just win baby.