Even though Brock Bowers joined a Las Vegas Raiders team with star veteran wideouts Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers, the young tight end was the No. 1 option in the passing game and the most talented pass-catcher on the roster from the jump.
But after trading both Adams and Meyers in consecutive seasons, and failing to add any proven producers out wide, the Silver and Black have just asked Bowers to do more and more. It'll be the same story once again under Klint Kubiak, as the Raiders still don't have an elite wide receiver.
So, Bowers will be the de-facto WR1 in 2026 on a measly salary of $2.4 million this year. Las Vegas will soon have to pony up and compensate him appropriately, however, and ESPN's latest prediction indicates that the Raiders will have to work quickly and pay through the nose to keep him around.
Las Vegas Raiders' eventual Brock Bowers extension may cost an arm and a leg for a tight end
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler recently spoke with executives around the NFL and asked them to make predictions for the 2027 offseason. What Fowler surmised from those conversations led him to make this assertion about the potential boom in the tight end market next year:
"One sneaky position to watch is tight end. Wide receivers make double what tight ends do despite the position's increasing prominence. Detroit's Sam LaPorta and Green Bay's Tucker Kraft are eligible for extensions now, and they could push to be among the highest paid at the position (at least $19 million per year). Blocking tight ends now make $8 million per year in free agency. Expect that number to rise. Day 2 of the draft reminded us how starved offenses are for good blockers to feature in their two- and three-tight-end sets. And by the spring, Las Vegas' Brock Bowers will be eligible for an extension."
Currently, the NFL's highest-paid tight end on an average annual basis is the San Francisco 49ers' George Kittle, who makes $19.1 million per year. The Arizona Cardinals' Trey McBride is just behind him at a flat $19 million, and then things drop off a minor cliff from there.
Should LaPorta or Kraft hit the open market, and Kyle Pitts is also a free agent next offseason, then they'll be due for big contracts. Any of those three players could feasibly reset the tight end market with an extension or free agent deal and jack up the price for a potential Bowers contract as a result.
Teams like the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons know that Bowers will probably get a lucrative long-term deal the minute that he is eligible, however, so they should want to plan ahead and get a deal done for the same reason that Las Vegas would want to lock up Bowers early.
Here's the kicker, though: Bowers has an argument that he's better than all of them, or at least more valuable at this point, due to his combination of skill, production and age. That means that the Raiders will probably have to fork out $20 million per year, at the very least, to keep Bowers in Las Vegas.
John Spytek wouldn't give Meyers that money last season, and although Bowers is a better player and the salary cap is only going up, the positional value between wide receiver and tight end is still seen as dramatically different. But the earlier they get an extension done, the cheaper Bowers will be.
Under Kubiak and with a better set of quarterbacks in Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza, Bowers is expected to explode even more in 2026. While that would be a welcomed reality for Las Vegas, it would only make the price for Bowers higher, especially if Kraft, LaPorta or Pitts cash in first.
Fortunately for the Raiders, they have the money and salary cap space to make a big move, assuming Bowers stays on course. The first year of a potential Bowers extension would be 2028, and Las Vegas has $207.5 million in cap space that year, the 13th-most in the league. That is plenty to afford him.
And it is undeniably a good thing to have talented, homegrown players who are worthy of high-dollar contracts. This is how great NFL teams are built. The Raiders have asked so much of Bowers, and he has delivered, that they have no choice but to blindly hand him a huge contract to keep him in town.
Again, though, the sooner the better. Any of the aforementioned three players could reach long-term deals before Bowers is even eligible, and in that sense, Las Vegas would be out of luck. But if they don't, and the Raiders still sit on their hands and let other teams dictate his price, they'll get hosed.
It is hard to put a price on Bowers' worth, and Las Vegas would be wise to sign him at nearly any cost. But if given the opportunity, the Raiders should be the ones controlling the market. Let's just hope it doesn't get out of hand before the ball is in their court.
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