Brock Bowers adds another milestone in historic NFL start — and signals a bigger shift unfolding at the tight end position

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler has polled 70 coaches, scouts, and executives across the NFL to gather a top-10 list at each position entering into the 2025 season. Bowers, despite being a rookie last season, was voted as the top tight end in the NFL — which is the first time in the years that Fowler has been conducting this exercise that we've seen a rookie claim the number one spot on the charts the following year. 

It's deserved. But it is also worth underscoring that it highlights a bigger picture about tight ends in the NFL. Each generation of football fan can look back and reflect on what felt like a very clearly defined upper tier of tight ends that are playing in the NFL. This most recent rotation of top names includes Travis Kelce, George Kittle and, if you're willing to go back a little further for overlap, Rob Gronkowski.

There's a changing of the guard underway at the tight end. Travis Kelce hasn't been Travis Kelce for two years now. Kittle is aging like fine wine, but he will turn 32 years old this fall. Gronkowski? Retired. Even in Baltimore, who is home to two of the top-10 tight ends in the NFL according to Fowler's poll, you're seeing a transition from Mark Andrews being perceived as the top of the room to Isaiah Likely. The new guard at tight end is here. 

Bowers leads the way, but he's joined on those poll by young talents like Detroit's Sam LaPorta and Arizona's Trey McBride in the top-four of the voting. We just saw two tight ends drafted in the top-15 of this year's NFL Draft in Colston Loveland (Chicago, 10th overall) and Tyler Warren (Indianapolis, 14th overall). That hasn't happened since 1992. 

It's an exciting time for the NFL and their tight ends — the future of the position is in good hands. And, in the eyes of the NFL personnel involved in Fowler's poll, the future is now.