I lean to thinking a "freak" is something different from just an elite level talent. It's a player with a very unusual set of physical characteristics, like weighing 350 pounds and running a 4.6 40 and dunking a basketball. He might not even be a great football player.
Bowers is an elite talent, no doubt, but maybe not a freak using my restrictive criteria.
I'm with you on that. Although not necessarily that I mean the two can't coexist, but a "freak" is someone that you look at and think "there's no way
that person should physically be capable of that".
In this vein, someone like a Calvin Johnson can be a freak. Because literally nobody on earth should be capable of what he is capable of. And he did it at, what, 6'5" and 240 lbs? It was like he broke that mold of size != speed. (Much like my previous example, Brian Urlacher).
But at the same time, there's Rondale Moore. 5'7", 180 lbs. And yet he could squat 600 lbs, could change direction like Barry Sanders, and was shedding tacklers like he was greased in Crisco. Doesn't fit.
Bowers was productive and great. But it's hard for a 6'4", 230 lb TE to be considered a physical freak. I think we're leaning on great players and not solely physical freaks.
I'm with you on Bowers. He's great. But we've seen his type. The "too big to be a WR so he plays WR but is labeled TE" guy.
The freaks to me are the ones like George Kittle. Yeah, he's all of that when it comes to being a pass-catcher. But he's also not coming off the field when being a blocker is required.
The TEs that are both fast and talented enough to be serious pass-catching threats, but at the SAME time strong enough to take on a rushing D end and their QB lives to tell the tale? That's the genetic freak territory for me at TE.
