Brock Bowers is obviously the top tight end in the 2024 NFL Draft and has been for a long while. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be off the board as early as some may have originally thought. That’s why, ahead of the first round in April, Mel Kiper Jr. is deep-diving into Bowers’ stock as a prospect and the confusion surrounding it.
Kiper spoke about Bowers and his “unpredictable” status during an episode of ‘First Draft’ on Monday. He started by assessing the clear, overall talent that the former Bulldog has as a tool, target, and weapon for an offense to use against any given defense based on his skillset and versatility.
“He’s not a wide receiver, he’s not a tight end. He’s a do-it-all guy. He can be a fullback, H-back,” Kiper said. “Look at the hands. Look at the ability to get the ball and then, after the catch, be dynamic. He’s outracing cornerbacks to paydirt.”
“He is a fear-factor player,” said Kiper. “Every defensive coordinator that they were facing, Georgia was facing had to identify, had to figure out a way to contain and they never could do it.”
Still, for some reason or another, Bowers now isn’t mocked as high as he once was in this NFL Draft.
For Kiper, that starts with team needs early on in the draft. For as great as Bowers is, he just doesn’t necessarily fit what some of these early franchises are looking for or needing compared to those with picks just outside the Top-10.
“You talk about the draft, where could he go? I thought the Chargers at five but Greg Roman comes in as offensive coordinator – maybe they don’t go that route. Think about, maybe, does he go to Chicago at nine, the Jets at 10? Well, the Jets have the big tackle needs,” Kiper said. “How about when you look at Denver at 12, you look at New Orleans at 14, Indianapolis at 15? Those are, I think definite possibilities.”
Kiper also thinks an inability to label Bowers correctly could also be playing into this. There should be nothing wrong with being versatile but it has caused teams to wrongly assess prospects in the past. For what all he can do, though, Kiper hopes teams are smarter now than some in the past.
“Learn from mistakes. Travis Kelce – third-round pick. Mark Andrews? That third, fourth round. (George) Kittle – fifth round. Let’s learn from these dynamic weapons dropping,” said Kiper. “Brock Bowers is going to be just as good as those guys. Where would you have re-drafted them? It wouldn’t have been the third, fourth, or fifth round.”
Some team is going to take Bowers and will likely be very pleased with what they’re getting in him. The questions now are which one and how far does he potentially fall in order for them to get him?
“He’s the seventh-highest rated player on my board – seventh, eighth highest-rated player,” said Kiper. “Does he deserve to be in the Top-10? Yes he does. If he doesn’t go until that 10 to 15 area, it’s because of the fact that team’s don’t know how to identify him.”
“For me, Brock Bowers should go Top-10 but it’s debatable whether he will,” Kiper said.
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