Georgia's Brock Bowers called a bigger Cooper Kupp by analysts

Georgia tight end Brock Bowers has a chance to be one of the top college football players in the country this season. As such, and as long as he stays healthy, he'll likely be one of the top players in the 2024 NFL Draft.

A game-changing tight end in the mold of Rob Gronkowski or Travis Kelce has become the apple of every NFL team's eye, and Bowers profiles as that kind of player. He's 6-foot-4, 240 pounds and hauled in 63 passes for 924 yards and seven touchdowns last season for the Bulldogs.

Speed, athleticism, the ability to play in space. Bowers has it all. So much so that NFL Draft analysts Nick Baumgardner and Diante Lee of The Athletic compared him to one of the top receivers currently playing in the NFL: Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams.

In their first mock draft of the season, the two analysts predict that Bowers will go No. 12 overall to head coach Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos. 

"Positional value and projected team needs are the only reasons Bowers falls out of the top 10 in this mock draft," they wrote. "Bowers is like a 6-4, 240-pound Cooper Kupp — he’s way too talented to be guarded by even a defense’s best safety, linebacker or slot corner. He creates more offense after the catch than you’d expect of a tight end and has the potential to run a full route tree. He won’t be a total bully in the run game, but he’s good enough to stay on the field for all three downs."

The comparison to Kupp has to be extremely flattering to Bowers. No, the body type isn't the same, as they alluded to, but Kupp has been one of the best receivers in football over the past few seasons. So much so that he belongs on the short-list of the current best-of-the-best, right alongside Ja'Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson.

Kupp's 2021 Super Bowl-winning season with the Rams was legendary. He caught 145 passes for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns.

If Bowers is even half of that player as an NFL tight end, some lucky team is going to be thrilled with his selection.