Raiders tight end Brock Bowers is officially done for the season after the team placed him on injured reserve, ending an injury plagued season for the talented pass catcher.
Bowers suffered a PCL injury, as well as a bone bruise in his left knee in his team’s season opener against New England. After battling through the bumps and bruises for 6 weeks, he was eventually sidelined for 3 contests to allow him to heal. However, the 23 year appeared to re-aggravate the injury in his team’s 23-21 loss to the Texans this past weekend.
Sitting at 2-13 on the season, the Raiders have little incentive to push their star tight end through the final two games, and have instead opted to allow him to begin his offseason recovery process.
Bowers currently leads the team in catches (64), receiving yards (680) and receiving TDs (7) on the year. The team also announced that safety Jeremy Chinn would also be placed on IR, ending his season early as well.
With a date with the New York Giants on the books for this weekend, some have speculated that the moves are an effort to bolster the team’s chances of locking up the number 1 overall pick in next spring’s NFL Draft. A win over the New York (also 2-13) would hurt Las Vegas’ odds of selecting 1st overall, whereas a loss would put the Raiders in the drivers seat down the stretch.
Cleveland, Tennessee and Arizona are all 3-12 on the season, and remain in the mix for the top overall pick depending on what happens over the final two weeks of the regular season.
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