Raiders report: Rookie continues to make case he’s team’s ‘best player’

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Raiders, amid the misery of another lost season, may have come up with a star.

Tight end Brock Bowers continued his incredible rookie campaign by setting career highs in catches (13) and receiving yards (126) in his team’s 34-19 loss to the Dolphins on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.

The performance didn’t surprise Miami, which had its eye on Bowers in April’s draft before the Raiders selected him 13th overall.

“We were very high on him,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “And he didn’t disappoint. He’s gonna be a player that everybody knows for years to come, in my opinion.”

Bowers, 21, has 70 receptions for 706 yards and three touchdowns this season. And it appears interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner will lean on Bowers even more heavily than his predecessor Luke Getsy did.

Bowers was targeted a season-high 16 times Sunday in Turner’s first game as the Raiders’ play-caller.

“There were definitely a few plays in there for me, for sure,” Bowers said. “It’s just my job to just catch the ball and get yards and that’s about it.”

Bowers’ 13 receptions Sunday were the most by a rookie tight end in a game since at least 1960. He is just the sixth rookie tight end in the Super Bowl era to have at least 10 catches and 100 receiving yards in a game, joining Jeremy Shockey (2002), Cam Cleeland (1998), Pete Mitchell (1995), Mark Bavaro (1985), and Charlie Sanders (1968).

Bowers is only the second tight end in NFL history to have multiple games with at least 10 catches as a rookie. Shockey is the other.

“Everything feels like it’s slowing down every game,” Bowers said. “The pace of play, I keep getting used to it.”

Expect Bowers to continue to be a big focal point of the team’s offense moving forward.

“We’re trying to do everything we can to feature our best player,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said. “He’s playing like that. He’s tough, he’s physical. … He’s doing everything we’re asking him to do as a rookie. We need more and more guys to make plays like him.”

Official defends critical call

Head referee John Hussey told a pool reporter after Sunday’s game the officials handled a sequence of penalties in the third quarter correctly.

The Dolphins were called for offensive holding on a first-and-goal from the 4-yard line, so the Raiders thought their opponent was moving backward. But then the officials called linebacker Divine Deablo for a facemask penalty. The offsetting penalties gave Miami another first-and-goal from the 4-yard line and the Dolphins scored three plays later.

Deablo clearly committed the penalty. But the officials appeared to wait to make the call until seeing a replay on the big screen at Hard Rock Stadium.

Hussey said the replay did not influence the decision to throw a flag.

“No, we don’t officiate that way,” Hussey said.

Hussey said the delay between calls was due to a discussion between two of the officials to confirm they saw the facemask penalty.

“So I announced the holding penalty from one official,” Hussey said. “Two officials were talking to each other and they were piecing it together. I think they both had a feeling or a sense that there was something on the play. So, they came together and were talking and as I announced the holding penalty, they confirmed the fact that they had a facemask, threw the flag and brought that to my attention. I just took the next step and did another announcement to include the facemask and offset both penalties.”

Mayer returns

Raiders tight end Michael Mayer was back on the field Sunday after missing six games for personal reasons.

“It felt good to be out there with the brothers,” Mayer said.

Mayer, 23, finished with one catch for five yards. The 2023 second-round pick played plenty of snaps and was a factor in the run game as a blocker.

Mayer said he had no problem fitting back into the offense.

“Oh yeah, I was still running routes and all that good stuff, so I was keeping everything in my mind,” Mayer said. “When I came back, it wasn’t very hard to sort of reiterate and sort of do the things that we were doing before I left.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X