Lynn Bowden Jr. shares his side of story about trade to Dolphins
When the Miami Dolphins made a trade ahead of the 2021 season for wide receiver Lynn Bowden Jr., the move felt like a no-brainer decision for the Dolphins. Miami needed help at wide receiver and the Las Vegas Raiders, just months after making Bowden Jr. the No. 80 overall selection in the 2020 NFL draft, were ready to move on and recoup some assets for what was described as a football mistake. The Raiders, you see, were asking Bowden Jr. to learn to play running back and things weren’t going well.
Fast forward to today and Bowden Jr. is apart of a revamped wide receiver corp of the Dolphins and looking to use his rookie season, in which he caught 28 passes for 211 yards and rushed 9 times for an additional 32 yards, as a springboard to bigger and better things.
But the finer details of Bowden Jr.’s departure from Las Vegas has always been somewhat a mystery. The Raiders shared their side of the story in the aftermath, but Bowden Jr. has finally taken the time to share his perspective on the trade after welcoming sports writer Tyler Dunne into his home. The read is long, but worth it. And inside, Bowden Jr. also shares how he was received in Miami after a brief and judgement-filled stop in Las Vegas.
“Granted, the trade screwed with his sanity. It took months for him to regain his swagger. When Bowden first got to Miami, head coach Brian Flores assured him that he didn’t care what happened in the past. The punch? The raid? Forget it. His slate was clean here. Bowden embraced the life reset by moving into this house one month after the trade.” — Tyler Dunne, Go Long with Tyler Dunne
The second-year player from Kentucky seems to have found peace after his stay in Las Vegas and now he’ll need to find the perfect role in Miami’s revamped offensive skill group for the upcoming season. He figures to serve as primary competition for Albert Wilson as a slot option in the Dolphins offense — but experience as a college option-quarterback may help Bowden Jr. carve out a more prominent role. Wildcat snaps were something he saw sparingly in 2020; perhaps with a more peaceful mind and a year under his belt, that come be something the Dolphins expand on for this upcoming season to help make the most of the Raiders’ hasty decision to punt on a top-100 selection.
