INDIANAPOLIS — Brock Bowers, the tight end out of the University of Georgia who is the unquestioned top prospect at his position in this year’s NFL Draft class, kept it simple Thursday when asked to describe his formal meeting this week with the Denver Broncos.
“It went well,” the three-time All-American said while speaking to reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine.
The idea of potentially playing for the Broncos.
“I would be excited,” he said.
If Bowers is up to speed on the history Broncos head coach Sean Payton has had with tight ends, he may have been underselling how eager he’d be to play in the coach’s scheme.
Ahead of Payton’s final season as the offensive coordinator for the New York Giants in 2002, the team drafted a brash, but talented tight end out of the University of Miami in the first round named Jeremy Shockey. He had awed coaches and scouts with his natural pass-catching talent while playing for a dominant Hurricanes team in the early 2000s. But matching that success in the NFL, Payton told Shockey when the Giants drafted him, would take an entirely new level of focus.
“Every day, wake up, come to work ready to learn. That’s what he really preached to me,” Shockey said years later of those early days with Payton. “Learn, come to work like you’re working for IBM or Microsoft, and really pay attention to the small details.”
All Shockey did during his rookie season with the Giants was catch 74 passes for 894 yards and two touchdowns while earning first-team All-Pro honors. He later rejoined Payton in New Orleans and became an integral part of the team’s dynamic offense as it put together a Super Bowl season in 2009.
Shockey was the first prominent example of how much Payton could do offensively with a tight end who could create mismatches wherever he was moved. He would help orchestrate similar success with Jason Witten when Payton joined Bill Parcells’ coaching staff in Dallas. He later helped Jimmy Graham turn in one of the most prolific stretches for a tight end in NFL history. Graham caught 355 passes for 4,396 yards and 46 touchdowns during a four-season span from 2011 to 2014.
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2024-03-01 21:43:45
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