The Las Vegas Raiders struck gold with tight end Brock Bowers in the 2024 NFL Draft. Raider Nation knows the tale of his historic rookie season, as the Georgia product broke endless records en route to a Pro Bowl appearance and a spot on the All-Pro First-Team.
Another leap during his second season would not be unexpected either. Geno Smith is far superior to any quarterback Bowers caught passes from last season, and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly has all the tools for a massively improved offense overall.
This week, legendary tight ends Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Greg Olsen hosted the fifth edition of Tight End University. This is a summit where the league's tight ends get together for three days and both perform various football activities, as well as bond off the field.
Brock Bowers is learning from Raiders rivals at Tight End U
Bowers was in attendance for the event, and unsurprisingly, he was interviewed after the first day. He touched on three players in particular that he has been learning the most from, and coincidentally, they are all tight ends from rival teams.
"Just being in those meetings, learning from Kittle, Kelce, all those guys, it’s just been amazing to just listen to them, Evan Engram [too]," Bowers said. "[We] just talk about different parts of their game and really try to transition that into my game and really try to focus on that out on the field. Hopefully, that’ll show up this year on the field.”
Kelce is an obvious AFC West rival as he plays for the Chiefs, and Kittle's 49ers are a longtime geographic rival of the Silver and Black. While learning from Kittle and Kelce is sort of the point of the event, given that they are two of the event's co-leaders, the inclusion of Engram was interesting.
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Engram signed with the Denver Broncos this offseason, but it seems like he has no quarrels about helping out his new divisional foe. While the two will never line up against each other, giving a frequent opponent some tricks of the trade may be frowned upon by an old-school coach like Sean Payton.
While Bowers is still young and has plenty to learn, it stands to reason that after his incredible rookie season, he could be in more of a teaching role at a summit like this. The culture of the event is such that everyone is both a teacher and a learner, but Bowers' choice to single out these players paints an interesting picture of bitter rivals helping each other improve.
Learning from these players will surely benefit Bowers and Las Vegas' entire offense as a result, and if he continues to improve this season, he and Raider Nation may have a trio of rivals to thank.