Analysts Still Rank Brock Bowers as a Top-2 Tight End After a Down Year. Here’s Why.

Brock Bowers didn’t have the sophomore season anyone expected. His numbers dropped. The Raiders offense was a mess. And yet, when analysts rank tight ends around the league, he’s still sitting at No. 2 behind only Trey McBride, according to Sports Illustrated. That says more about how the league views his talent than it does about 2025’s stat sheet.

Bowers went from 112 catches for 1,194 yards as a rookie to 64 catches for 680 yards and seven touchdowns last season. His yards per route run fell from 2.15 to 1.84. Those are real drops. But anyone who watched the Raiders offense in 2025 knows the problem wasn’t Bowers. It was everything around him.

ESPN’s Ben Solak put it bluntly: Bowers regressed in both raw and rate stats, but league executives didn’t knock him for it. And Solak said they were right not to. He called Bowers too explosive for most NFL safeties, let alone linebackers, and said the way Bowers transitions from catch to runner is unlike any other tight end in the league.

You don’t hear that kind of praise for many second-year players coming off a down season.

Klint Kubiak sees a football robot from heaven

New Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak isn’t shy about how he feels about Bowers. Speaking Wednesday, Kubiak called him a football robot in a good way. Then he kept going. Said Bowers is a Cadillac out there. Said he’s been successful everywhere he’s been — college, high school, every level. Kubiak made it clear the Raiders need to get the most out of him, and that Bowers sets the standard for work ethic.

That kind of language from a head coach matters. It’s a signal about usage.

And usage is where things get interesting. Under Kubiak last season in Seattle, Jaxon Smith-Njigba posted ridiculous numbers. He accounted for 44.1% of the Seahawks’ total receiving yards and 35.9% of their targets. Both were the highest marks for any receiver since Brandon Marshall in 2012. Solak noted that we’re in an era where targets are more centralized than ever, and Smith-Njigba was the perfect guy to carry that load because he could line up everywhere and run any route.

Sound familiar? Bowers can do the same thing. He’s not just an in-line tight end. He splits out wide. He works from the slot. He runs the full route tree. If Kubiak’s track record is any guide, Bowers isn’t just going to get more targets in 2026. He might get an absurd number of them.

So yeah, the sophomore slump happened. But the league isn’t holding it against him. And if Bowers bounces back the way people expect, that top-two ranking might not be the ceiling.