ESPN analyst forsees Jaxon Smith-Njigba-like workload for Raiders’ Brock Bowers

One of the biggest moves of the NFL offseason came when the Las Vegas Raiders hired former Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to be their next head coach. Kubiak is fresh off of leading the Seahawks to a Super Bowl, and he is looking to bring a similar level of success to Vegas this fall.

The Seahawks didn’t have a truly elite offense a season ago, but Kubiak did an excellent job getting an offense led by Sam Darnold that had some problems on the offensive line to a level where it could win the Super Bowl. A big reason for that was the emergence of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who became plan A, B and C for Sam Darnold and the passing game and won Offensive Player of the Year as a result.

Now, Kubiak is entering another situation with one defined pass-catcher as the top option. Tight end Brock Bowers had a tough 2025 season after posting one of the best rookie tight end seasons in NFL history in 2024.

Heading into Kubiak’s first season with the Raiders, ESPN NFL analyst Ben Solak sees a potential Smith-Njigba-like workload for Bowers this fall.

“Given the unspectacular nature of the Raiders’ wide receiver room (Tre Tucker, Jalen Nailor, Jack Bech, Dont’e Thornton Jr.), it’s fair to call Bowers the lone star of the Raiders’ passing attack,” Solak wrote. “Given Kubiak’s willingness to feed his lone star nearly unprecedented volume, it stands to reason that Bowers is about to see a huge uptick in total opportunities. If Kubiak is who we think he is as a play designer, those opportunities will be high quality.”

Smith-Njigba accounted for 44.1% of the Seahawks’ receiving yards last season and was targeted more than one-third of the time, so Bowers could be in for a big season.

Of course, it will look a little different for Bowers, as he is a tight end who isn’t quite as smooth of a route-runner as the Seahawks star (almost nobody is). However, he is a rare athlete and a mismatch nightmare, which Kubiak will surely use to his advantage.

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