Georgia may have its Brock Bowers replacement and it’s not Oscar Delp

Last season when Brock Bowers went out with an injury, Georiga immediately turned to sophomore Oscar Delp to fill his shoes. Delp stepped up with 24 catches for 284 yards, but never had more than three grabs in a single game, and proved that he may never be the receiving threat that Bowers was. 

That’s why, this offseason, Kirby Smart went into the transfer portal and plucked out Benjamin Yurosek, a graduate transfer from Stanford, and it could be Yurosek, not Delp who replaces Bowers in the passing game for Heisman Trophy favorite Carson Beck. 

Yurosek has gotten rave reviews in fall camp, not just for the maturity he brings to a very young tight end room, but for what he’ll bring on the field. 

While Delp’s offensive output was a bit underwhelming with just 24 catches, that’s still more than Yurosek’s 2023 campaign. Across six games, Yurosek caught only 16 passes for 239 yards, but that production wasn’t exactly indicative of his abilities as a 6-foot-4 245-pound playmaker. 

In 2022, Yurosek caught 49 of his 65 targets for 444 yards and one touchdown. Not, game-breaking numbers, but on a Stanford offense that finished that season 92nd in the country his lack of efficiency is excusable. For his career, Yurosek averaged 1.50 yards per route run while playing on one of the worst units in the country, better than Delp’s career 1.31 or 1.37 yards per route run in 2023. Even last season, Yurosek averaged 14.9 yards per reception, 18th best among the 106 tight ends who saw at least 25 targets. Delp ranked 45th at 11.8. 

This is what Yurosek was doing on a slightly more function offense in 2021 with Tanner McKee at quarterback, and now he gets to play with the best QB in the country. 

With all that being said, and the hype trickling out of Athens throughout August, Delp will still be the No. 1 tight end in Week 1 against Clemson. He’ll likely see the most snaps at the position across the season, but it could be Yurosek who is the bigger factor in the passing game, and maybe even on the ground. 

Tight end wasn’t the only position that Smart targeted in the portal. He also went after wide receivers, adding Colbie Young from Miami (FL) and London Humphreys from Vanderbilt. Pairing those two with Dominic Lovett and Dillon Bell will give the Dawgs more depth on the outside than they have ever had since Smart took over, but some of the best formations for Mike Bobo’s offense could be with two tight ends on the field. 

There likely isn’t one player, in Athens or all of college football, who can replace what Bowers gave the Georgia offense over the past two seasons, but with Oscar Delp and Benjamin Yurosek, the Bulldogs may have found a way to recreate him and his production.