Brock Bowers missed the first two games of the season, but when he came back, did he ever make an impact. The Las Vegas Raiders star popped off in his return to the field and his first game under head coach Klint Kubiak. With the offensive mastermind at the helm of the franchise now, is Bowers already the No. 1 fantasy tight end heading into Week 4?
Is Brock Bowers the top fantasy tight end?
In 2024, a rookie Brock Bowers exploded onto the scene. He averaged 15.5 FPPG and finished as the overall TE1 in fantasy behind a historic season that saw him record 112 catches for 1,194 yards and five touchdowns. He shattered the rookie receptions record – as a tight end, at that – and seemed poised to even improve in year two. That sophomore campaign wound up being shortened to 12 games due to injury, but he still averaged 14.7 FPPG when healthy despite dealing with poor quarterback play and other structural issues in the Raiders’ environment.
We knew heading into year three of Bowers’ career that he could be one of the best tight ends in fantasy football, so the hype for him picked up when the franchise hired Klint Kubiak as head coach. The star’s debut under the offensive-minded leader was delayed for two weeks following a meniscus trim procedure that came seemingly out of nowhere just before Week 1. However, the wait was worth it.
When Bowers finally got on the field in Week 3, he immediately produced 10 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown on 13 targets. He finished as the TE1 on the week with 27.6 PPR points, a massive outing that surely delighted fantasy managers who stayed the course and held onto him. With a scorching-hot start to his season, can we expect this kind of performance moving forward out of the 23-year-old?
While Bowers may not quite reach that high of a ceiling on a weekly basis, there’s a legitimate case that suggests he’s already back atop the mountaintop of the tight end position. Obviously, he’s an incredible talent based on the eye test, but the numbers tell an interesting story.
A one-game sample isn’t necessarily indicative of what’ll happen over the remainder of the season, so take this with a grain of salt. With that said, Bowers had a 94.6% route share in his debut under Kubiak and saw some very versatile usage that suggests this entire passing attack will run through him. He worked as an in-line tight end on just 20.0% of his routes, instead lining up in the slot on 42.9% and out wide on 34.3% while even seeing a route out of the backfield. Putting the ball in his hands is a clear priority as Bowers commanded a massive 39.4% target share in his return to action with 0.37 targets per route run – those marks rank first and fourth among all pass-catchers, even including wide receivers. His 50.0% first-read percentage also paces the entire field.
This new staff is clearly trying to deploy him in creative ways that allow the quarterback to feed the rock to the talented pass-catcher. The same goes for when the Raiders are in the red zone – he saw three targets inside the 20-yard line and two in the end zone. The target volume ranks eighth among tight ends despite the fact that Bowers has played just one game.
We could talk all day about how efficient Bowers is with his looks since he ranks third among all tight ends with 2.04 yards per route run since coming into the league back in 2024. However, the usage alone is enough to solidify his place among the top of the position. The only other name who can really compare is Trey McBride, who’s producing 19.7 FPPG with a Cardinals offense that’s dropping back 40+ times per game again. The latter does see a very high slot rate at over 65% that helps drive up his value in PPR leagues, but it’s tough not to look at the more versatile usage of Bowers and envision him playing a similar role in Kubiak’s offense to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who broke out with the Seahawks under the then-coordinator.
You can’t go wrong with either of these guys, but with lesser competition for targets with the Raiders, Bowers does appear to have reclaimed his throne as the top fantasy tight end.
