NFL bound Bulldogs dish on Brock Bowers, freakish ability at TE
Darnell Washington was impressive on Saturday at the NFL Combine. His numbers were impressive regardless of what his measureables were and even more impressive when you consider those. The scary part for College Football fans, Washington wasn’t even the top tight end on Georgia’s roster this past season. That title goes to Brock Bowers who is back for another season in red and black with the Bulldogs in Athens.
“No teams have asked me about Brock. I feel like I wouldn’t have to tell them about his skillset. He just is. He’s got the numbers or the tape, whichever one you want to look at,” Washington said. “Hopefully we start a trend and bring TEU to the University of Georgia. That’s what me and Brock are trying to do. Put it in stone.”
Bowers led Georgia in receiving for a second straight season in 2022. After hauling in 56 passes for 882 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2021, all three of which were records for a freshman regardless of position and for a Georgia tight end in a single season, he upped his reception (63) and yardage (942) totals. Furthermore, Bowers became a bigger weapon with the threat to take the ball and run with it in 2022, carrying it nine times for 109 yards and a trio of touchdowns as opposed to four carries for 56 yards and a score the year before. He was named Freshman of the Year in 2021 for both the SEC and the NCAA while in 2022 he took home the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end.
“He’s one of the most humble people to be around,” former Georgia safety Christopher Smith, who matched up against Bowers in practice, said about the star tight end. “He doesn’t say a lot, he just puts his head down and works. He doesn’t come out there flashy, he doesn’t come out there with all the sleeves and stuff that I like to wear, all the leg sleeves and what not. He’s just out there in cleats and gloves. He comes out there ready to work, like a workhorse. Great hands, great route runner, he’s got a tremendous amount of speed and he’s tough to deal with in practice everyday.”
“I think it was the huge tight end sets. In the Big 12, we’re not used to 12 personnel, 13 personnel and stuff like that,” TCU linebacker Dee Winters, who saw Bowers go for seven catches and 152 yards on the biggest stage, said. “I think that gave us a little bit of trouble. Brock Bowers, he was an all around Swiss Army knife type of tight end. He could do it all. That’s something that, it didn’t catch me off guard because we knew the kind of player he was, but seeing it in person and playing against him, he definitely was him.”
Georgia is undergoing a couple of key changes on the offensive side of the ball from the group that put up 65 on the Horned Frogs in the National Championship Game. After the Bulldogs ranked fourth in the country in scoring and fifth for total offense, offensive coordinator Todd Monken was hired away by the Baltimore Ravens. He’ll be replaced by Mike Bobo. Quarterback Stetson Bennett and other pieces of the success are off to the NFL leaving Georgia with big shoes to fill in several spots. One thing’s for sure though, you can count on Brock Bowers being a big part of whatever the offense looks like through the changes.
