How the Raiders Are Still Struggling to Feature Brock Bowers

Their opponents have figured out the Las Vegas Raiders' offense since Geno Smith's interception on his first pass in Allegiant Stadium in Week 2.

Raiders Must Adjust

The Raiders entered the season expecting another solid season from tight end Brock Bowers. Although he has missed multiple games with an injury this season, Bowers has again proven he is arguably the best tight end in the league when healthy.

His performance, combined with the departure of Jakobi Meyers at the trade deadline, has made it more than evident who the Raiders' offense is built around. The Raiders' lack of complementary pass-catching options has allowed defenses to focus on taking Bowers away from Geno Smith.

Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty finished twice as many targets and two more catches than Bowers. It was yet another time this season that Bowers' targets were relatively low.

That is a concern, considering another time it happened was against the Denver Broncos a few weeks ago, when Bowers was not targeted once in the second half. Las Vegas will again face the Broncos on Sunday. It is no secret what their game plan will be on defense.

"There is a few variables in there, and some of the way they played him. And we're always looking for him, always. We love the way he plays and the plays that he can make. So, it's never like we're holding off to throw to somebody else. That's not the way this works. But some of it was pressure, and some of it was things that they did,” Carroll said.

“They really committed hard, and it worked out for them better than for us. We would like him to get close to 10 targets a game, and somewhere in there and more. We'll take whatever we can get with him. He was easily looked at with the thought of targeting in maybe a dozen times in the game. So, it just didn't work out."

Carroll assessed Bowers' second touchdown catch against the Chargers this past Sunday. Most agree that Bowers' catch is one of the top catches of the season in the entire National Football League. Bowers continues to make the extraordinary look routine.

"Well, it's a very unique catch. You think about all the great catches that we've seen, so, so unique that he would catch it off the top of the turf. I thought it was one of the really excellent catches I've seen, and it's because you never see anybody do it like that. Made it special even more so,” Carroll said.

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