Team performance hasn't been a reason to watch the Raiders this season, but with three games remaining, individual performance is.
According to Raiders.com, there are four records being chased by a couple of players in these final few weeks of the 2024 season.
For the past 63 years, Bears legend Mike Ditka has held the record for most receiving yards by a rookie tight end. His 1,076 receiving yards is a milestone no one has touched since that 1961 season. Ditka accomplished this in 14 games. Now 14 games into the 2024 season, Bowers is only 109 yards away from making NFL history.
If Bowers surpasses Ditka this Sunday, it'll have taken him one extra game, but it's worth noting his 6.4 receptions per game trumps Ditka's 4.0 receptions per game, both after 14 games. In fact, Bowers's receptions this year have already earned him the record for most by a rookie tight end in NFL history.
Bowers is catching significantly more balls as a rookie than Ditka did. However, Ditka stretched the field more and found the end zone more, which is why he impressively reached this mark in a shorter season.
It's just an interesting comparison looking at these two rookie seasons side-by-side, 63 years apart, and speaks volumes to the Raiders rookie's place in NFL history.
That's not the only record his receiving yards are going towards. Bowers is also just 103 yards away from surpassing Amari Cooper's decade-long record for most receiving yards by a rookie in Raiders history.
But perhaps the most prestigious record Bowers can possess is the most receptions in a season in Raiders history. A record once held by Hall of Famer Tim Brown (1997), and since surpassed by Darren Waller (2020). Bowers is 15 receptions from passing Brown and 18 from taking sole possession of the title.
Both Waller and Brown accomplished their milestones in the 16-game season. While it would be a steep hill to climb, it would be incredible if Bowers could pull it off in these next two games to match their 16-game sample. We would have to see a slight uptick in his previously mentioned pace of 6.4 catches per game. Although that pace would get him the record after the final game.
But the rookie stand-out isn't the only Raider with eyes on the record book.
Kicker Daniel Carlson is just five field goals away from becoming the second kicker in NFL history to make 200 in his first seven seasons, joining only Justin Tucker (who made 237).
Carlson and Tucker will have each played in exactly 112 games in their first seven seasons.
So Raider Nation, while you painfully watch these last three games, with your eye on the draft order, remember our franchise kicker and our rookie tight end. They'll make the end of this disappointing season a little more entertaining to watch from the couch.