Rookie first round draft pick tight end Brock Bowers has not played in the Las Vegas Raiders last 3 preseason games due to a foot injury. There’s been a lot of questions in regards to his availability for the season opener.
“Yeah, I feel really good about that to be honest,” Pierce said. “Just again, I’m going to go back to protecting the young guy. Sometimes you get in the league, you have got to be smart and sometimes you have got to protect them from themselves. So, that’s all it is.”
#Raiders HC Antonio Pierce on whether he expects Brock Bowers (foot) to play Week 1:
“Yeah, I feel really good about that, to be honest.”
Pierce has a 60% reliability rating on injury coachspeak (low sample size), but he’s been more reliable when expressing a high level of… pic.twitter.com/V7BpvK4T79
— The Coachspeak Index (@CoachspeakIndex) August 29, 2024
That clears all of the overactions of Bowers. Possibly having a more serious than thought of foot injury that would cost him to be out for a extended time. Look for Bowers to take a lot of reps this week in practice to try to bring him up to speed. Bowers doesn’t really have too much of a connection with first string quarterback Gardner Minshew. So expect a crash course for the rookie.
Bowers is a very important piece of the Raiders success on offense. Teaming him with second year second round tight end Michael Mayer should give the Raiders a huge mismatch for opposing team defense. The Raiders could have a dominate tight end set like New England has with Gronk and Aaron Hernandez.
Coach gets it
Pierce gets credit for shutting Bowers down and not putting too much pressure on the rookie and allowing him to heal. Understating the bigger picture in the long run. That type of tunnel vision could save a lot of players on the roster.
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Robert LaMar is a writer for Dice City Sports. You can follow him on X via @RobertLaMar26
