the paysites for the last couple of weeks about this. Sightings saying he has gotten huge and now his brother comes out and says he is 240ish. Interesting to say the least.

Julio and Alexander probably aren’t the best endorsements. Julio is probably a little smaller than Bowman, and even so he’s more of a possession guy, plus more than a few have openly speculated on the possibility of him playing tight end at the next level. And as for Alexander, I don’t know off-hand what he is officially listed as, but he’s practically a bean pole. He’s a legitimate 6’4 or 6’5, and while they may have him around 215 on the official roster, I would wager he would probably struggle to top 200 pounds on the scales. Besides, he’s a rising fifth-year senior who hasn’t really been able to get on the field despite a lack of quality wide receiver play on our part, so in any event that’s not much of an endorsement.

Likewise, the depth at tight end isn’t necessarily what you would think. Vogler and Jones are wholly unproven commodities, Underwood has yet to get on the field in a meaningful way, same goes for Billingsley, Dial is a senior, and Smelley will likely never be a true tight end (he’s probably the worst blocker we’ve had at the position in years). We’ve got a lot of guys at the position, admittedly, but few proven commodities in the years to come, and aside from Michael Williams we have no one who has definitively proven on the field that they can be both effective blockers and receivers in the SEC. We have a lot of guys who can do one or the other, but Williams is really the only one to date who has shown an ability to do both, and given the fact that we need multi-talented threats at the position in this conference and that we need lots of them given our proclivity for the usage of two tight end sets, we still have work to do in that area. To that end, Bowman could be a meaningful contributor.

Furthermore, on more of a theoretical basis, if Bowman has indeed bulked up to 235+ pounds, then it could make a lot of sense to try him at tight end. At anything near that weight, he’s going to be purely a possession receiver on short and intermediate routes at wide receiver — no way he will ever get separation downfield against SEC caliber defensive backs at that size — so if he is going to be that, why not move him to tight end where it is easier to get him isolated against linebackers and safeties? If you recall, LSU did that to us last year with Deangelo Peterson, and it gave us hell on more than a few occasions. I wouldn’t complain if we could use Bowman in a similar role, so long as the staff does not feel he could be a greater contributor on the outside.

… Williams is not the problem, the problem is everything behind Williams.

Specifically, aside from Williams, who do we have that has proven they can be both viable receivers and blockers in the SEC? No one.

Dial and Smelley are slightly above-average receivers, but both are terrible blockers. Undra Billingsley would probably be a good blocker, but the next pass he catches will be the first. Underwood has yet to show that he can do either, really. Vogler and Jones may contribute, but neither have arrived on campus yet and in any event both will be true freshmen. For now, all we definitely have is Williams.