HENDERSON, Nev. – The Las Vegas Raiders have signed third-round draft pick RB Lynn Bowden Jr., the club announced Saturday.
Bowden Jr., an explosive and versatile playmaker out of Kentucky, was selected 80th overall by the club in the 2020 NFL Draft.
A three-year player for the Wildcats from 2017-19, Bowden Jr. appeared in 39 games with 25 starts over his career with the program, tallying 206 carries for 1,530 yards and 13 touchdowns, adding 114 receptions for 1,303 yards and six additional scores. Bowden Jr. also completed 38-of-79 pass attempts for 495 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions.
As a senior in 2019, Bowden Jr. won the Paul Hornung Award as the nation's most versatile player, in addition to being recognized as a first-team All-American and team captain, after starting all 13 contests and carrying the ball 185 times for 1,468 yards and 13 TDs, hauling in 30 passes for 348 yards and one TD, while also earning a record of 6-2 after taking over quarterback duties for the program's final eight games. Bowden Jr. set program records for most rushing yards (1,369) as a quarterback, most 100-yard rushing games by a quarterback (seven), while also posting an NCAA bowl game quarterback-record 233 rushing yards against Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl. Additionally, he was the only player in the FBS to lead his team in both rushing yards and receiving yards, while finishing fifth in the nation with an average of 160.7 all-purpose yards per game.
In his first two seasons with the program, Bowden Jr. led the team with a sophomore program-record 67 receptions in 2018, after being named to the Coaches' All-SEC Freshman Team in 2017 after posting a school record for most kickoff returns (37) and most kickoff return yards (869) in a single season by a freshman.
The native of Kittanning, Pa., the 6-foot-1, 199-pound Bowden Jr. attended Liberty (Ohio) High School before transferring his junior season to Warren G Harding High School. He was a four-star prospect by all major recruiting services and was a Top-100 player in the 2017 class by ESPN and Scout.com after throwing for 1,366 yards, rushing for 2,277 yards and accounting for 57 total touchdowns as a senior.
