After Six QBs Picked In First 12 NFL Draft Selections, Raiders Choose Georgia Tight End Brock Bowers With 13th Selection

 

 


Story by Alan Snel   Photos by Hugh Byrne

Let’s go to the video of the Raiders draft room at about 6:40 PM Thursday.

After the Las Vegas Raiders picked Georgia tight end Brock Bowers, ESPN showed video of Raiders staffers clapping. No hugs.

After six quarterbacks were selected in the first dozen picks, the Raiders landed the six-foot, three-inch 243-pounder who grew up in the Napa, California area where the Raiders used to train.

Raiders fans at OMNIA Las Vegas nightclub react to the Bowers first-round pick:

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It was a mere two years ago when Steve Sisolak was Nevada’s governor, the Raiders had a different general manager and coach and Las Vegas was hosting the NFL Draft.

The NFL closed the roads near the Flamingo Road and Las Vegas Boulevard and the LVCVA tourism agency was hyping the event.

On Thursday, the NFL Draft began in Detroit, with the Raiders throwing an NFL Draft party at OMNIA nightclub on the Strip for club/suite holders and corporate partners.

Raiders Draft Party at OMNIA. Photo credit: Hugh Byrne

The Raiders fans watched the consensus overall number one pick — Southern California’s Caleb Williams — walk the Draft stage for a greeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Last summer, Williams was at Pac-12 Media Days in Las Vegas playing pickleball.

ESPN was reporting 275,000 fans were at the Detroit Draft event.


 

Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.