Carson Beck confident in Georgia tight ends after Brock Bowers

Georgia quarterbacks have had quite the safety blanket the past few seasons with tight end Brock Bowers suiting up for the Bulldogs. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Napa native has been the best player at his position since the moment he arrived on campus, creating mismatches against opposing defenses each time out. With Bowers now in the NFL, UGA must find a way to operate its offense in the absence of the star.

“Obviously there is only one Brock Bowers. He is one of, if not, the best players I’ve ever played with. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with some really good guys at the University of Georgia. There is no Bowers, but truly it always is next man up,” quarterback Carson Beck said while at the Manning Passing Academy. “We have a really good tight end room. Really good athletes. Guys that can make plays after the catch, are good in the run block, make contested catches. Like I said, obviously there is no Brock Bowers, but I’m very excited for what we’re bringing back and the plays that they can make.”

Like Beck said, the Bulldogs still have a strong tight end room. Oscar Delp played plenty alongside Bowers last season, and when Bowers was out, Delp stepped up. Totaling 24 catches for 284 yards and three touchdowns, Delp started 10 of the 14 games in which he played. He also logged five catches for 61 yards, playing in 13 of 15 games as a freshman. Ranked the No. 2 tight end in his high school recruiting class according to the On3 Industry Ranking, there’s plenty of potential for Delp to grow into the role of a star in Georgia’s offense.

That’s not all though. Georgia also went out and got help from the transfer portal, adding Ben Yurosek from Stanford. Yurosek spent four seasons at Stanford, including the 2020 COVID season – allowing him to use his final year of eligibility in 2024 at Georgia. The Bakersfield, Calif. native played in all six games for the Cardinal as a freshman but didn’t catch a pass. However, as a sophomore he grew into a bigger part of the offense – starting 11 games and hauling in a team-high 658 receiving yards on 43 receptions. He found the end zone three times, earning All-Pac 12 honors from Pro Football Focus (1st), Phil Steele (3rd) and the league’s coaches (Honorable Mention).

“It allows us to be very versatile,” Beck said about the way Georgia uses its tight ends. “We can get into 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 22 personnel, there’s a lot of different things we can do having the players we have and the personnel groupings that we have, which ultimately opens it up and makes it harder for a defense to prepare for us.”

Georgia enters the 2024 season with five tight ends on scholarship and having had one drafted in each of the past six NFL drafts. Alongside Delp and Yurosek are Lawson Luckie, Jaden Reddell and Colton Heinrich. Both Luckie and Reddell were top-10 tight ends and top-150 players in their respective recruiting classes. Yurosek has just one year of eligibility remaining and there’s a chance Delp could go pro in 2025 too. So, while they will look to showcase their skills and eventually add to the total of Bulldog tight ends in the NFL – a group that includes Charlie Woerner, Tre McKitty, John FitzPatrick, Darnell Washington and of course Bowers – the trio of youngsters will try to prepare to take the next step and appropriately handle the responsibilities of being leading one of the Bulldogs’ top position groups year in and year out.