Bowers has earned two straight 90.0-plus PFF grades: His 92.1 mark as a true freshman was the top mark among Power Five tight ends.
• The Georgia tight end is already a top-10 draft prospect: Bowers comes in at No. 5 on PFF’s early 2024 draft board.
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The tight end position was once a first-round staple in the NFL draft. From 2000 to 2010, teams selected a whopping 16 tight ends on Day 1, to varying degrees of success. Since then, however, NFL teams have been more hesitant to invest significant draft capital in the position. In the 13 drafts since 2011, only 10 first-round selections have been used on tight ends.
Many of the position’s best players from the last 12 years — Rob Gronkowski, Travis Kelce, Jimmy Graham, Mark Andrews and George Kittle, to name a few — were all chosen after the first 32 picks on draft day. Seemingly, NFL teams’ willingness to spend a valuable draft pick on the position has waned over the years, potentially due to the later-round value picks of recent memory and the fact that many of the previous first-round tight ends have been busts relative to their draft position.
