Las Vegas Raiders star second-year tight end left the team's Week 1 game with an injury, but hasn't missed any time since then. Throughout every week in practice, we've seen him limited at times and there have even been instances in which his game status was in question. Yet, Bowers has continued to play, speaking to the young leadership and toughness that is one of the many things that makes the former Raiders first-round pick special. However, it seems all of this might be coming with way too high of a risk for everyone involved.
ESPN insider Adam Schefter reported on Sunday ahead of the Raiders' Week 5 game against the Colts that Bowers is still hampered by a PCL injury, in addition to a bone bruise in his knee, that he's been dealing with since the hit that took him out in Week 1. The concerning part, though, is that Bowers "has been unwilling" to sit out and rest the injury, which Schefter reports is the only way that the injury can heal at this point.
On the one hand, the sport of football and the NFL have taught fans to admire players for displaying this level of grit and toughness, playing through injuries to help the team. In this instance with Bowers and the Raiders, though, it's beginning to feel downright reckless and potentially dangerous to keep putting the tight end in this situation and not force him to sit out. To put it plainly, the team should be saving him from himself.
The Raiders aren't nearly good enough to risk Brock Bowers' long-term health
Coming into Week 5 at a dismal 1-3 on the year, the Raiders are already on the precipice of feeling like they're falling out of playoff contention. More importantly, the eye test and the erratic play of Geno Smith only makes the postseason seem like a more distant notion than it already did. And in that, playing Bowers is just irresponsible on the part of the franchise.
Playing through knee injuries with the key joint compromised already can have catastrophic consequences if things go wrong. Just look at someone like former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, who played through an MCL sprain, further injured his knee, and then was never the same, completely derailing his career. He's not the only example, but he might be the most famous.
There comes a time when both the player and the team need to evaluate simply whether the juice is worth the squeeze. With just one win to the Raiders' credit at this point, what exactly are they gaining by putting Bowers on the field at less than 100 percent and with the risk for possible re-injury given that he's not playing on a fully healthy knee?
Sure, it might take some level of swallowing pride for both Bowers to take a seat to rest his knee and for the Raiders to admit this team isn't good enough to risk the health of a potential franchise cornerstone on offense right now. At the same time, there comes a point when everyone has to be realistic with long-term goals in mind, and that moment is fast approaching.
It would also be one thing if Bowers was getting the Raiders closer to getting over the hump. However, as he's been playing through this injury, it's been painfully obvious that he's not at full strength with how his performance has dropped off.
Brock Bowers hasn't been himself playing through injury either
Before injuring the knee initially in Week 1, Bowers looked to be picking up right where he left off in his record-breaking rookie campaign. The former Georgia tight end exploded out of the gate in the opener against the Patriots with five catches for 103 yards, including multiple explosive plays down the field. He hasn't even come close to sniffing that since he's been playing hurt, though.
While Bowers has had five catches twice and four catches once in the three games since the injury, he's totaled just 122 yards in that trio of contests and has still yet to find the end zone for the Raiders offense. He's not produced more than 46 yards in any of those games individually and the explosive element a healthy Bowers can provide the Vegas offense simply hasn't been there, which can easily be attributed to the injury.
That only furthers the point that the Raiders and Bowers are handling this injury far too recklessly. It would, again, be more justifiable if the tight end playing through the pain was still resulting in the Las Vegas offense running with him as the engine. That simply hasn't been the case, however, since he suffered the injury, and there's instead been a dramatic decline in what he's been able to contribute to his side of the ball.
All things point to Bowers still playing through the injury going into Week 5 against the Colts. However, if the Raiders are at all smart about this situation, the best-case scenario was to sit Bowers with this knee injury right after he suffered it. Now that we're well past that, though, the best they can do is to sit him now, instead of continuing to risk making this situation go from unfortunate to ruinous.