What they're saying after Brock Bowers first round selection to Raiders

The first Georgia player is off the board in the 2024 NFL Draft. Brock Bowers was selected by the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 13 overall Thursday night, pairing him with first-year head coach Antonio Pierce, quarterback Aidan O’Connell who they drafted last year – along with free agent signee Gardner Minshew – and exciting weapons including Davante Adams, Jakobi Meyers and Michael Mayer. He’ll also have an opportunity to reunite with his teammates from Georgia Zamir White and Christopher Smith.

Here’s what the draft analysts had to say on television immediately after the Bowers selection to the Raiders…

Kirk Herbstreit (ABC): “Well, that could be the best player in the draft right there, and he ended up going 13. Antonio Pierce just sat back and said, ‘He may be there boys. He may be there! Let them take that quarterback. We’ll take the best player in the draft … Mom’s an All-American softball player at Utah State. Dad’s a two-time all-conference offensive lineman. The crazy thing is, he comes out of California, how’s he going to be as a true freshman? He looks like that the first time we all saw him, a man child as a true freshman.”

Nick Saban (ABC): “I absolutely think this guy is one of the three most dynamic players in the draft. He’s hard to guard, a mismatch player, tight end, people say it’s an undervalued position but when you have a mismatch guy at tight end, you don’t have the best guys on the team guarding the guy. These guys can be tremendously productive. He blocks well enough. Run after the catch, this guy is almost like a wide receiver. Can run jet sweeps. He can do so many things well, and he’s a great person, going to do all the right stuff. He’s going to represent the organization in a first class way. We had so much problem guarding this guy, and Brian Branch, he starts for Detroit, he was the only guy we had come close to being able to guard the guy when we played him … Guy played this year on a bum ankle really. Had tight rope surgery on a high ankle sprain. That’s really, really tough to overcome at his position.”

Desmond Howard (ABC): “Coaches told me that when you first saw him practice, you knew he practiced to be great. He practiced at the same speed all the time. It’s been a treat to watch him develop. Three-time All-American, consensus All-American at Georgia, that’s big time.”

Mel Kiper (ESPN): “To get him at No. 13, that’s tall value. The quarterbacks are overdrafted. Bo Nix was at No. 31 on my board. That’s a feeding frenzy for quarterbacks. All six of these guys aren’t going to be great. Three or four of them are probably going to be, but a couple will be disappointing. Brock Bowers has a chance to be special though. You can put him in the backfield, at tight end, at H-back, line him up outside. He’s a weapon. He can catch the ball and do stuff after the catch with the speed he possesses. He averaged 83 receiving yards in seven career conference championship games and bowl games. His great run after the catch ability, he tracks the ball extremely well. You can move him around every where. Whether it’s Gardner Minshew or Aidan O’Connell, that’s a quarterback’s best friend right there.”

Louis Riddick (ESPN): “If you can’t get the quarterback, then with the quarterback you do have, either Gardner Minshew or Aidan O’Connell, give them weapons and give them multi-positional weapons. They have some nice pieces now with Jakobi Meyers, Davonte Adams and Brock Bowers. They still need to find a runner, and there are some running backs that are going to provide value later on in this draft. I’m sure they’ll be able to pick one up. But this guy is just a weapon, period. If you don’t have the trigger guy, find somebody who can make that trigger guy look a lot better, and this guy’s going to do that. He will own the middle of the field, absolutely own it.”