The Las Vegas Raiders dropped their road game to the Los Angeles Chargers 31–24 on Sunday. But the night wasn’t a total loss. Their second-year tight end, Brock Bowers, quietly made NFL history and joined a pretty elite club featuring Travis Kelce, Kellen Winslow, Jeremy Shockey, and Kyle Pitts Sr.

Right after the game, the Raiders announced that Bowers has now recorded 25 games with multiple catches. And he’s done it within his first 26 career games. That puts him in rare company, tying Kelce, Winslow, Shockey, and Pitts Sr. for the most multi-catch games by a tight end through that early stretch of an NFL career.

The former first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft tied the mark after snagging four catches for 63 yards and two touchdowns in the Raiders’ Week 13 loss to the Chargers. And with his 26th game now in the books, Bowers is up to 1,767 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. He now averages 6.19 receptions per game, elite numbers for any tight end this early in a career.

As for Kelce, when you line up his early-career numbers, the picture becomes pretty clear. After playing just one game as a rookie, he exploded in Year 2 with 67 catches for 862 yards and five touchdowns. Then, over the next nine games of his third season, he added 45 receptions for 574 yards and three scores. All totaled, that gives him 112 receptions for 1,436 yards through his first 26 NFL games.

It was an early benchmark that shows exactly why he’s now considered one of the best TEs of his generation. The only crazy part? Even with Kelce setting that kind of bar, it’s fair to say Bowers is already trending toward that same tier. Maybe even pushing for an even steeper trajectory. Will he? Won’t he? That’s too early to say for now.

Brock Bowers shared his feelings on the Chargers’ loss

Even though Brock Bowers had just four receptions against the Chargers, he still delivered both of the Raiders’ touchdowns. And one of them might genuinely be the touchdown of the year. On 2nd-and-goal in the fourth quarter with under eight minutes left, Geno Smith fired a low throw that looked impossible to reel in. But Bowers somehow scooped it with one hand, turning a broken play into pure highlight material.

“I don’t really think out there,” Bowers said about his TD grab. “I just see the ball coming and do whatever I can to catch it; I feel like if I overthink, then a game’s not going to be as good… I haven’t even seen the film; I don’t know how it happened; I just react, and when the ball’s coming, I catch it.”

However, with that highlight-reel touchdown coming in yet another loss, it’s hard to imagine Bowers celebrating it the way a play like that deserves. The Raiders just dropped their tenth game of the season, and the frustration spilled through in Bowers’ postgame comments. He added:

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“It’s not fun. We come here to win games, obviously, and that hasn’t been the case. So, we just need to get better and keep improving.”

Following their Week 13 loss, the Raiders will now face the 10-2 Denver Broncos at home. While a losing season under Pete Carroll has officially locked in, we’ll see how Vegas improves in the final stretch of the season.