HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — An NFL head coach eventually realizes if a rookie has the ‘it’ factor.
Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce knows the moment he saw it in tight end Brock Bowers.
“The day he walked in the door,” Pierce said Wednesday. “We knew we were getting a blue chipper. I mean, he did it day one at Georgia when he walked on campus. And he did it each and every game, each and every year.
“And he got here in rookie minicamp, and he got pads on at training camp ... then we slowed him down a little bit because he was pushing himself. And to be honest, I mean we knew what we got, just didn’t want to speak on it until he did it.”
Through the first two games of the season, he’s done it.
And it seems everyone except the shy 21-year-old from Napa, California is comfortable speaking on it.
“I could tell when he first showed up,” said wide receiver Davante Adams, who was part of a panel of veterans who spoke to the rookies when they first arrived in Las Vegas. “And I could just tell by the way he spoke and the way he was locked in, he didn’t really seem like he cared about anything other than football.
“You got those type of dudes that’s young, and they come in like that and just lock in and grow and learn from all the veteran players you can see something special in them.”
Asked how he was able to break the ice with someone whose character is stoic and reserved, Adams said he still isn’t sure his young teammate has thawed out.
"We still skating,” Adams said. “I don’t know if it's ever been fully broken.”
On the field, though, Bowers is scorching.
Bowers, who had nine catches for 98 yards in Sunday’s 26-23 come-from-behind win in Baltimore, is the first tight end in NFL history with at least five receptions and 50 receiving yards in each of his first two games.
Bowers’ 15 receptions and 156 yards the two games are the most for a rookie tight end since the merger. He also ranks second in the league in highest catch percentage (88.2%) on targets in the NFL this season, with a minimum of 15 targets, behind Tampa Bay’s Chris Godwin (93.8%).
“I just kind of come and do my job, and I just feel like I go about my business,” a coy Bowers said in front of his locker, looking a bit shellshocked surrounded by reporters. “Whenever I’m in the building, I just kind of just focus on football and yeah, just getting after it.”
Bowers said his time at Georgia helped ease his transition from college to pro, and it's been a championship mentality and attention to detail that Pierce has been appreciative of during his first official season as head coach.
“He’s tough, he loves the game,” Pierce said. “He doesn’t care how he looks, how he talks — he just wants to play ball. And that fits our mentality.”
Bowers has a chance to continue his impressive start Sunday when the Raiders host Carolina in their home opener. The Panthers have allowed a league-tying sixth-highest receptions (11) and eighth-most yards (104) to tight ends this season.
“That dude’s like, been making plays from day one,” Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew said. “To get him in game situations, to have the trust in him has really been easy. He’s earned it the whole time, and it’s really cool to have a guy like that on your team.”
INJURY REPORT: Defensive end Maxx Crosby (ankle), linebacker Tommy Eichenberg (knee), tackle Kolton Miller (shoulder), defensive end Tyree Wilson (knee), defensive tackle Christian Wilkins (knee) and safety Chris Smith (knee) were all limited in practice on Wednesday. Linebacker Divine Deablo (oblique/concussion) and cornerback Decamerion Richardson (hamstring) did not participate.
MORE MAXX: Crosby earned his fifth-career AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors with six tackles, four tackles for loss, two sacks and a pass defensed in Las Vegas’ 26-23 victory at Baltimore. His four tackles for loss are the most in a single game among AFC players this season.
The dateline of this story has been corrected to Henderson, Nev. instead of Las Vegas.
AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
FILE - Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers watches from the sideline during the second half of an NFL preseason football game against the Minnesota Vikings, Aug. 10, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
FILE - Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers (89) carries the ball during the second half of an NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Sept. 15, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.
It’s been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 people captive inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily for the past year. Israel escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.
Rumors circulated for weeks over head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status after an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
Here's the latest:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.
The Guard’s leadership hasn’t been as visible in the two weeks since Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel. The Guard is the main power behind Iran’s theocracy and oversees its arsenal of ballistic missiles — which would be crucial in any future attack on Israel.
At the funeral in Tehran for Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, the Guard’s chief commander, Gen. Hossein Salami, attended alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the country’s judiciary. Other Guard generals also attended, including Gen. Esmail Qaani of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, about whom rumors had circulated for days regarding his status after the strike that killed Nasrallah.
At least two prominent Guard generals were not on hand: Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Guard’s aerospace division that oversees its missile program, and Gen. Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guard’s navy, did not attend.
Iran offered no explanation for their absence, though Israel has threatened to carry out a serious retaliatory strike against Iran.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.
A strike early Tuesday hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila, killing at least 10 people from one extended family, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The dead include three children and one woman, according to hospital records. An Associated Press camera operator at the hospital counted the bodies.
In the nearby town of Fakhari, a strike hit a house early Tuesday, killing five people, including three children and a woman, according to the European Hospital, where the casualties were taken.
The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of sheltering in civilian areas.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters Tuesday.
Adel al-Deqes said his relatives tried to move to another place in Jabaliya in the morning, but the military shelled them.
“We don’t know who died and who is still alive,” he said.
Ahmed Awda, another Jabaliya resident, said they heard “constant bombing and gunfire” overnight and Tuesday morning. He said the military destroyed many buildings in the eastern and northern parts of the camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
“They bombed many buildings; some of them empty buildings,” he said.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.
Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.
While Iranian state television did not acknowledge the rumors, it made a point to film Qaani for over a minute and later share the footage from the airport ceremony online.
Qaani was on hand for the repatriation to Iran of the body of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who was killed in the airstrike.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians contributing to the country’s missile defense program, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday.
Iran’s launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on Oct. 1 was “a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war,” Wong said in a statement.
The fresh sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.
The decision brings to 200 the number of Iran-linked individuals and entities now sanctioned by Australia.
“Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions,” Wong said.
People chant slogans during the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People and officials attend the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, mourns during the funeral ceremony of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Mourners carry the coffin of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforushan who died alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month during his funeral in Karbala, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Pro-Israel protesters holds Israeli flags as demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight
Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight
