Pete Carroll provides clearest update yet on Brock Bowers

The Las Vegas Raiders fanbase has collectively held their breath on the fate of Brock Bowers.

Since suffering a knee injury in Week One against the New England Patriots, Bowers’s performance has taken a slight dip, failing to eclipse 50 receiving yards in any of the next three games. After the struggles on the field, it was soon revealed that the severity of Bowers’s injury was more than initially expected with the diagnosis of a PCL sprain. At the point, the Raiders had no choice but to protect their young star player by sitting him out for Weeks Five and Six.

On Monday, however, head coach Pete Carroll gave Raiders fans the news they were waiting for on Bowers.

There appears to be a clear path towards when Bowers is expected to come back.

During his press conference on Monday, Carroll made it clear that he was weighing the pros and cons of Bowers returning against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, as opposed to waiting until after the team’s bye the following week.

“I’m hopeful, but we’re looking after him,” Carroll said. “There’s a big bye coming up and all that kinda stuff. An extra week, a couple of weeks you’d get, before you’d have to come back. I’m optimistic always, but that doesn’t mean we’re getting him back. You look at the long haul of it, it might be best to just guarantee that he’s full speed and back. So we’ll see how we handle that.”

While Carroll did not commit to one direction or the other, the discussion of Bowers’s return suggests the All-Pro tight end should return by no later than Week Nine against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Fortunately, the Raiders do not have to feel the need to rush Bowers back before he is fully healthy. In his absence, Michael Mayer stepped up for 50 yards and a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans last week. If Bowers does need to miss one more week, Mayer has proven more than capable of filling in at the starting role.

The Raiders are willing to play the long game with Bowers, and they will do whatever they can to ensure they do not risk the long-term health of their top offensive weapon.