The Raiders offense finally kicked into gear in the second half against the Ravens, and to the surprise of no one, the key to jumpstarting the offense involved Davante Adams and rookie tight end Brock Bowers.
Yahoo and Fox Sports host Jason Fitz talked about the Raiders offense this week on GoJo and Golic, and he made a couple of interesting points on the direction Getsy seems to be taking the offense.
“Luke Getsy, the [Raiders] offensive coordinator who I’ve been particularly hard on, did a beautiful job in the fourth quarter of saying, ‘Hey, if I’ve got to play chess with two pieces, Brock Bowers and Davante Adams, I will play chess with two pieces and I will beat you,'” Fitz said.
But probably the more interesting point he brought up was the way the Raiders have started to use Bowers, who they drafted with the 13th-overall pick in this year’s draft.
“If you look at what [Getsy] did formation-wise with Brock Bowers, it’s pretty incredible. They ran more snaps with Brock in the slot than they did with Brock at tight end,” Fitz continued. “I think that’s going to be part of what they do moving forward, and they basically said, ‘You will account for Brock and the minute you do, we will take advantage of one-on-one with Davante.'”
Looking at the numbers from Sunday’s game in Baltimore, Bowers lined up as a slot receiver on 15 pass plays. He was in the slot on 50 percent of the pass plays he was a part of in the game, according to Pro Football Focus.
What that means is the Raiders don’t view Bowers as a traditional tight end and are willing to move him around to get mismatches in coverage. It’s a luxury that not many offenses in the NFL are able to tap into, and one of the biggest reasons the Raiders were able to upset the Ravens on the road in week 2.
Without Bowers, Baltimore would have focused more attention on Adams. The Ravens couldn’t figure out a way to defend both players and that will be a challenge for every defense that faces the Raiders going forward.
Looking back, how ridiculous to these takes from anonymous NFL executives sound…
In May, NFL insider Mike Sando quoted two league executives in a column for The Athletic. Both believed it was a poor decision by the Raiders to draft a tight end at pick 13.
“I think they were stuck once Atlanta took (Michael) Penix and they were like, ‘Oh, crap, we might not get a quarterback to fall to us,’ and they scrambled and took that kid,” one executive told Sando on the Bowers selection. “He is a good player, but a luxury item. I don’t like those kinds of picks unless you have everything else.”
“Bowers is not like Dalton Kincaid where you can create separation in the normal flow of the offense,” the other executive said. “You have to move him. He would be ideal in San Francisco or Miami. Whereas Kincaid is special at the top of the route, Bowers is one-cut, catch it, break three tackles and he’s gone. Hopefully, they have a good plan for him because he can do some really unique things with the ball.”
Makes you wonder which teams employ those executives, doesn’t it?
On Tuesday, former All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski said Bowers might be a better receiving tight end than himself, and the numbers after two weeks suggest Bowers might already be the best receiving tight end in the league.
x: @raidersbeat
I think its worth noting that Jokobi is also an incredible talent and Tucker is no slouch, just keeps gettign better.