Todd Hartley explains how Georgia utilizes the NFL to help Brock Bowers improve

Most NFL general managers and head coaches would be plenty happy to drop Georgia star tight end Brock Bowers into their offense tomorrow, as the junior possesses all of the talent and physical ability necessary to make it to the next level. But they will have to wait some months before one of them gets to make Bowers theirs.

In the meantime, though, the Bulldogs will continue drawing upon the NFL to help Bowers — and his teammates — improve. Tight ends coach Todd Hartley explained how it’s quite easy to get college players to buy-in on emulating NFL players.

“These kids got the ultimate respect for guys that play in the NFL, right? So you’re constantly trying to find clips from the NFL of maybe a [Travis] Kelce or a [George] Kittle, the great tight ends. And you’re looking at things that they do that are similar to what we do,” Hartley said.

And the points that can be picked up on can get quite fine.

Hartley used specifics of how Kelce might run a route and how he’d in turn challenge Bowers to emulate that to his advantage.

“I can show Brock, ‘Hey, maybe you — at the top of your route, you can sink your hips a little bit more. You can rage out of your break a little bit faster to create a little bit more separation.’ That way you don’t have to make that superstar catch with a guy draped all over you. If you sink your hips and run your feet a little more like Travis Kelce, you’ll be wide open. You’ll have more space, you’ll have more separation at the top of that route,” Hartley said.

While Bowers has a long ways to go before he’s alongside the likes of Kelce, he’s certainly on the right track.

In 29 career games, the Bulldogs tight end has 1989 all purpose yards — more than 68 yards a game — and 24 touchdowns. And he’s poised to keep adding to his stat tallies and skillset this season, with plenty more NFL film study mixed in.

“Try to find some clips from the NFL to show these guys because that immediately grabs their attention when you put the logo of the Browns or the Chiefs of the Eagles or somebody like that up there on the screen. They’re like, ‘Whoa, OK. That’s how they do it?’ Boom,” Hartley said. “So that’s probably the best thing that we do.”