Georgia football fans love following former Bulldogs in the NFL. And thankfully for the fanbase, there are many elite players to follow.
One of those players is tight end Brock Bowers, who just finished his rookie season with the Las Vegas Raiders. During this season, Bowers recorded 1,194 yards, 112 receptions and five touchdowns which led him to finish in second place for the Offensive Rookie of the Year award.
But NFL analyst Chris Simms thinks an incoming rookie tight end could challenge Bowers as the best young tight end in the NFL.
"[Warren] has better physicality than Brock Bowers,” Simms said via si.com. "He's not as good of a route runner as Brock Bowers, but he's better than Brock Bowers with the ball in his hand. Brock Bowers I think is going to have more catches than him in a lot of years because of what he does in that role. Tyler Warren I think will have more big plays at the tight end position, more yards per catch. But I don't think it's going to be like Brock Bowers 105 receptions. He's going to be more of a guy that's like, 'Hey he caught 70 and had 1,000 right?'"
This comment doesn’t make a lot of sense
The challenger in question is Penn State’s Tyler Warren, who is regarded as the best tight end in this year’s NFL Draft. Simms claims that there are certain aspects about Bowers that he likes more than Warren, but he did claim that Warren will have more big plays than Bowers in the NFL.
But when looking at the data, that might not be a guarantee.
During Warren’s final season at Penn State this past year, he recorded 15 receptions that went at least 20 yards. That is the same total that Bowers averaged per year while at Georgia, but interestingly enough Bowers also had 15 receptions of at least 20 yards last year with the Raiders too. And it goes without saying that this is a more impressive accomplishment in the NFL compared to college.
There’s always a chance that Warren could turn into a better player than Bowers, but at this point it’s unfair to make that claim at any capacity because Bowers has more than proven himself in the NFL while Warren hasn’t played a down in the league yet.