Why Brock Bowers won't see a drop off in Production in 2022

The Georgia Bulldogs fielded a very productive and efficient offense last season, averaging 37.4 points per game. One of the biggest reasons for the amount of success the Bulldogs had on offense came at the hands of Brock Bowers, a true freshman tight end at the time.

Early in the 2021 season, it became very evident that Bowers was not only one of the best tight ends the program had seen in quite some time but arguably one of the best tight ends in all of college football. In fact, Bowers' freshman campaign was so impressive that some members of the media went as far as to say that he would've been an early first-round pick in this past year's NFL draft.

Now coming off of a year where Bowers racked up 56 receptions for 882 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns — which is arguably the best singular season a Georgia tight end has ever had — all eyes are on him to see what he looks like during his second season as a collegiate football player. A player of Bowers' caliber requires a lot of attention from opposing defenses which might create the belief that he could possibly see a drop-off in production during the upcoming season.

That may not actually be the case for the Georgia tight end though. In fact, he might even see a bit of an increase.

It might seem that the best approach to stopping Georgia's offense would be to bracket Bowers and force other players to beat you. Many teams even attempted this defensive strategy during the latter half of the 2021 season. With the number of players on offense that Georgia gained back this off-season though, that might not be a logical approach to slowing down the Bulldog's offense.

Georgia's seen talented weapons taken out of the game with double coverage, particularly George Pickens in years past. Without the threat of a second option and pass-catcher during Pickens' prime seasons, defenses were afforded the ability to pay quite a bit of attention to Pickens. Very similar to the way they will attempt to do to Bowers in 2022.

There's a difference in Athens now, however.

Players such as Adonai Mitchell, Kearis Jackson, Ladd McConkey, and Darnell Washington will all be suiting up for Georgia's offense this season, and those names aren't even the end of the list. The Bulldogs also welcomed back Arik Gilbert who missed all of last season due to a personal matter. Gilbert flashed during the spring game, and has the NFL community buzzing yet again about his talents.

People often forget that Kearis Jackson, who saw the majority of his career statistics come via the right arm of Stetson Bennett in 2020 during his best season, was in a knee brace for the first month of the season a year ago.

Not to mention, Dominick Blaylock who has been steadily working his way back into the lineup after suffering multiple injuries over the past couple of years including an ACL tear.

With all of that being taken into account, defenses will not be able to simply devote all of their attention toward Brock Bowers as the Bulldogs have too many offensive weapons to choose from, and doing so would only open up the field for one of Georgia's other players to hurt a defense.

It sounds insane, but Brock Bowers could see even more breathing room this year than he did this past year. It's a "pick your poison" type of approach that defenses will have to use when facing Georgia, and that certainly will help open up the field for a guy like Brock Bowers.

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