Brock Bowers had a meniscus trim on Tuesday in Dallas, and the Raiders now expect their top offensive piece to miss a game or two as the 2026 season opens. The timing matters because Las Vegas needs him out there right away, starting with Sunday’s home game against the Miami Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET.
That is a sharp turn for a player the Raiders took No. 13 overall in the 2024 draft and then watched produce 112 catches, 1,194 yards and five touchdowns as a rookie. The hope was that Bowers would spend the offseason getting fully healthy after a knee injury had already cost him time in the 2025 season, but this procedure puts him back on the sideline just as the new year begins.
The injury itself was not new. It happened during camp, but it was not diagnosed until last week, which helps explain why the timetable arrived only after the problem had already lingered long enough to require surgery. NFL Network and reported Wednesday that he is expected to miss a game or two, a window small enough to sound manageable and large enough to matter when a team is trying to build an offense around one player.
That is the part the Raiders cannot really hide from. Bowers already missed three games in October during the 2025 season after a knee injury, then sat out the final two games of the year. The pattern is what makes this more than a brief setback: Las Vegas is again starting a season without the player it built so much of its passing game around.
For now, the question is not whether Bowers will return — it is how quickly the Raiders can get him back without asking him to rush through another recovery. A one- or two-game absence can disappear in the standings, but when it lands at the front of the schedule, it changes the way the opening weeks look, and it leaves the Raiders waiting on the same player they expected to lean on from the first snap.
