The Raiders leaked some less-than-flattering information on Saturday as to why they abruptly traded third-round pick Lynn Bowden Jr. earlier in the day.
Essentially, the story in The Athletic was that Bowden Jr. wasn’t giving his best effort in training camp and didn’t seem to be a high character individual. Raiders GM Mike Mayock did his best to squash the story on Sunday (definitively saying the decision to trade LBJ was entirely a football decision), but there’s no question that there was something else about Bowden Jr. that was particularly concerning to the team.
Whatever the case, an assistant coach at the University of Kentucky went to Twitter on Sunday to defend the dignity of his former player… even bashing the Raiders personnel department for playing Bowden Jr. at the wrong position.
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It’s certainly understandable that Bowden Jr.’s coach would be upset at the Raiders, but it’s a little early to start pounding the table that Josh Allen is a better player than Clelin Ferrell. Beyond that, the Raiders front office also drafted Maxx Crosby in the fourth round of last year’s draft – and Crosby was every bit as productive as Allen in 2019.
Time will tell if Bowden Jr. is a running back or wide receiver, but whatever he is, he was definitely a player the Raiders badly wanted away from the team. There is no way that the Raiders would give up on Bowden Jr. after one training camp if he was simply playing out of position.
Credit to Mayock for taking the high road, but common sense would strongly suggest that there was more to the story of LBJ than what Mayock told reporters today… regardless of what a college assistant coach might have to say.
twitter: @raidersbeat
UK “football” has been, for the vast majority of its existence, a perennial doormat. Bowden Jr is a loud mouth punk. They think he has more talent than he does and that a pro team would put up with his trashy attitude. They were incorrect.
Mark my word, this dude will be a footnote in less than 2 years. He will probably be in prison in 3 years.
Well thanks coach Obvious, the Raiders tried to utilize him differently than how he played in your program to fit thier program and it wasn’t working so they cut bait took the loss for the betterment of the team! It’s not the first time in football that this has happened! Both parties will move on. Wish Bowden luck in Miami except when he plays the Raiders! #RN4L
Lil’ Ceaser could only win the superbowl with someone else’s team!
that being Tony DUNGY’s team w/TB, after that it was downhill for lil’ Ceaser
He never could coach!!
I hope he goes to the Miami Dolphins it shows the Raiders that they were totally wrong about you so that way gets old coach can laugh in their faces