NFL fans divided over Brock Bowers' historic start to rookie season - "We're not impressed," "Absolute menace"

The Raiders selected Brock Bowers with the 13th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft and the tight end has since become the most important part of their offense. Even as the Raiders have struggled and sit at the bottom of the AFC West, he has been a rare bright light as other pieces have changed around him.

Whether it is star receiver Davante Adams leaving for the Jets midseason or having to deal with a rotating cast of quarterbacks, he has aced every possible hurdle.

Currently, he has 706 yards in the first 10 games of his career, which is the most by a rookie tight end. The previous best was Kyle Pitts, who had 635 yards at the same time in his career.

Fans, however, did not have a unanimously positive reaction to his achievement. Some were genuinely thrilled, whereas others expressed skepticism on X/Twitter. Here are some reactions from the social media platform.

The comments also highlighted a divide within the NFL fanbase with some saying that he is a genuine superstar while others advised caution. Here are some more responses.

"Think you’re forgetting about rookie Gronk. Dude was a beast in the run game and put up 10 TD." - said one about anointing him the greatest rookie tight end of all time.

"Okay but let’s not act like Kyle Pitts record was number 1 WTF kinda statement is that he s see till has a lot to go" - another highlighted that previous rookie holder Kyle Pitts is hardly the best in his position right now.

"He’s having a special year fs, just sucks that he doesn’t get highlighted often due to the Raiders lack of success this season" - one fan lamented how Raiders' overall poor season is masking the player's individual success.

Comparing Brock Bowers' season to other rookie tight ends

Brock Bowers is indeed having a special year. However, he has some way to go before he can claim to be the greatest rookie tight end of some time.

In terms of yardage, even though Kyle Pitts had the most after ten games, he did not finish as the all-time leader. That record belongs to Mike Ditka who had 1,076 yards in 1961. The Falcons tight end did breach the 1,000-yard mark, though, and is second on the list.

Looking at touchdowns, it does not look likely that Brock Bowers will come close to beating the mark set by Mike Ditka, who had 12 touchdowns in his rookie year. He only has three for the year. In modern times, both Sam LaPorta and Rob Gronkowski have hit double digits with 10 touchdowns in their maiden season. Arguably, both could be considered more valuable than Kyle Pitts is now.

Therefore, Mike Ditka has an unassailable lead if the mark of greatness is both yardage and touchdowns and it does not look likely that Brock Bowers will breach both. If he does get the record for the most yards, though, that too will be a phenomenal achievement.

However, it should be tempered by the knowledge that the Hall-of-Famer reached that mark in 14 games whereas the current regular season constitutes three more matches.