The Week 1 status of Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers has been up in the air for quite some time now after the rookie suffered an injury following the preseason Week 1 game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Bowers missed significant time with the injury, but head coach Antonio Pierce said on more than on occasion that he expected the rookie to suit up in Week 1.
“Yeah, I feel really good about that to be honest,” Pierce said of Bowers' chances of playing in the season-opener. “Just again, I’m going to go back to protecting the young guy. Sometimes you get in the league, you have got to be smart and sometimes you have got to protect them from themselves. So, that’s all it is.”
But we still needed confirmation on Bowers' status, which we hoped to get during the week of practice leading up to the game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
After he was limited over the first two days of the week, there was some great news on Bowers on the Raiders' final injury report of the week.
Brock Bowers injury update
According to Levi Damien of Raiders Wire, Bowers managed to log a full practice on Friday and has been removed from the injury report, meaning he's good to go for Week 1.
Malcom Koonce, JPJ, DeCamerion Richardson all ruled OUT on #Raiders injury report #Chargers pic.twitter.com/ks1QC5gGvY
— Levi Damien (@LeviDamien) September 6, 2024
While Bowers is expected to play a large role in the Raiders' offense this season, it remains to be seen what kind of role he'll have out of the gate, especially after missing so much practice time over the past month.
Adding to that concern, Bowers doesn't have an ideal situation under center, with the team starting journeyman Gardner Minshew, who is best suited as a backup.
If you're starting Bowers in fantasy football, temper expectations for Week 1. On top of everything else, it's tough to know what a rookie is going to bring to the table in their debut.
