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Looking back on Brock Bowers career as best-ever college tight end

Palmber-Thombsby:Palmer Thombs•01/21/24•

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Brock Bowers
Oct 7, 2023; Athens, Georgia, USA; Georgia Bulldogs tight end Brock Bowers (19) runs against Kentucky Wildcats defensive back Maxwell Hairston (31) after after a catch during the first quarter at Sanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

Max Chadwick of Pro Football Focus made the case this week for Brock Bowers as the greatest tight end in college football history, and you won’t hear any objections coming out of Athens. Georgia tight ends coach Todd Hartley took to Twitter on Sunday to share that he thinks “there should be no debate.”

Chadwick’s points include the fact that Bowers is the first-ever two-time winner of the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end. He was a three-time All-American (just the second-ever tight end to do so) and his stats have been dominant from freshman season on.

“There can only be one “greatest of all time” in any given field … Now that his collegiate career is over, Georgia’s Brock Bowers has also joined that exclusive club as the greatest tight end college football has ever seen,” Chadwick wrote.

“Bowers was named to PFF’s All-American team in all three of his seasons. He was also a three-time AP All-American, becoming only the second tight end in history to accomplish that feat. The other, Notre Dame’s Ken MacAfee, did so while playing four years of college football,” Chadwick added. “Now that he’s moving on to the NFL, the debate becomes whether or not he’s the greatest tight end prospect of all time. It’s also now time to recognize Bowers as not only an all-time great collegiate tight end, but the greatest collegiate tight end of all time.”

As Chadwick makes a point to mention, Bowers’ case starts from the moment he stepped foot on campus. The top-ranked tight end in the Class of 2021, the Napa, Calif. native came to Georgia after not playing a senior season due to COVID and made an immediate impact. He led the Bulldogs in receiving with 56 catches, 882 yards and 13 touchdowns – all program records for a player at his position and receiving scores regardless of position in a single season.

Bowers didn’t slow down either. In fact, he only got better, grabbing 63 balls for 942 yards in 2022 while expanding his skillset to also include the ability to make plays as a ball carrier too – topping the 1,000 total yard mark and scoring double digit touchdowns.

Bowers was understandably considered one of the top players in all of college football for 2023, and it took the sport by storm when he went down with an injury in October. While he missed four games on the season due undergoing surgery for an ankle sprain, Bowers returned in record time and still managed to finish atop the team standings in all three receiving categories: matching his 56 receptions from his freshman season in five fewer games while putting himself on pace for the school’s first 1,000-yard receiving season since 2002 had he been able to play in each of the team’s 14 outings.

“It was special. Every day, you knew you were going to get an A in effort and toughness and team. You almost take it for granted because it’s almost like you don’t know what you got until it’s gone,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said about Bowers during a recent radio interview. “He never was an issue, never had much to say, never complained, never griped. He was just a solid worker that just worked. From day 1, he made plays. From the spring he arrived, we knew ‘Wow, this guy is a player here. A really good one.’ And then he goes into the Clemson game and plays really well and made some intricate plays and just took off his freshman year.”

“When you look back, I think the mark he’ll leave is the way he went about things,” Smart continued. “Whether it was injury and being in at treatment every morning before the coaching staff or whether it was staying out and running extra. Catching a pass in practice and going 75 yards. It will be the stuff of legend that people around here talk a long time about. He was just different.”

Bowers is projected to be a first-round pick in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft. In his most recent big board, ESPN’s Mel Kiper has him as the No. 8 overall prospect – and without a doubt the top tight end.

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