Tyree Wilson tried to get off on the right foot after being taken with the seventh overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. But the Las Vegas Raiders edge rusher simply couldn’t because of ... well... his right foot.
His offseason wasn’t like the other prospects the Raiders drafted as Wilson was recovering from breaking that foot in his final season at Texas Tech. The injury occurred when Wilson planted the foot as he tried to get around the edge in the Red Raiders Nov. 12, 2022 matchup with Kansas. That was his final play of his collegiate career and the previous regime in Las Vegas weren’t deterred and made Wilson the No. 7 pick.
His rookie season, however, was pure catch up as he missed large swaths of team activities in the offseason due to an ailment that required surgeries to fix. At the time the Raiders selected Wilson, the team had Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones as the starters at edge rusher. Thus, a redshirt-type season from Wilson was viable at the time. But Jones was inactive for the first two games of the season before being released in late September, accelerating the need for Wilson to get on the field as he along with Malcolm Koonce and Isaac Rochelle were the only other defensive ends on the roster at that point.
With stunted progression, Wilson showcased a notoriously slow get off in comparison to Crosby and Koonce and the tardiness dampened his effectiveness. Overall, Wilson played in all 17 games (no starts) compiling 29 total tackles and 3.5 sacks in his first season with the Raiders. Not a glamorous stat line for someone taken in the Top 10 of the draft.
By The Numbers: Tyree Wilson
2023
- Games: 17 (0 starts)
- Stats: 29 total tackles (16 solo), 2 tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, 8 quarterback hits, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery
This offseason, however, Wilson is healthy and motivated. He also has Crosby hounding him from nutrition, stretching, workouts, film study, you name it, the veteran is asking Wilson about it.
“Coming in from college, you think you’ve got everything figured out,” Wilson said during his media session the first week of Raiders OTAs. “But this year, I just slowed back down, started taking the coaching and just come out here and work. You gain respect by the actions that you put in, and it just really helped me take more steps up this year.
“I mean, I feel like it starts off the field. You’ve got to have good weight, good eating habits, sleeping habits, to be the best on the field. I learned that from a leader in the room.”
The duo were present and honing their craft at Max Crosby’s Sack Summit last month. Look at the clip below where Crosby displays his explosiveness, bend and speed. After him is Wilson who didn’t exhibit the delayed get off and much better initial burst:
Say what you will on the difference between Crosby’s smoothness around the tackle dummies compared to Wilson’s, but take into consideration the styles the two play differ. Crosby is a 6-foot-5 and 255-pound edge that puts offensive tackles in the spin cycle with this burst, agility, and spin while Wilson is a 6-foot-6 and 275-pound power-based rusher.
With a clean bill of health and a full offseason where he’s participating regularly, we’ll get to see what Wilson brings to the table in Year 2.
Let’s take a look at his floor and ceiling for 2024:
Floor: Rotational Edge
The Raiders depth chart is fluid — especially at this time of the offseason — but it’s a group led by Crosby and Koonce. The former paced Las Vegas with 14.5 sacks while the latter had an emergent season with eight quarterback takedowns.
Koonce played in all 17 games last year with 11 starts and produced tallying six of his eight sacks in the Raiders’ final four games of the season including a three-sack performance in the team’s Christmas Day win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead.
Considering that 1-2 punch, the floor for Wilson is being part of the rotation at defensive end and providing a bigger and powerful presence at edge when needed. Playing in all 17 games with minimal to no starts and compiling stats like his rookie year would be the absolute ground floor.
Wilson did play 493 snaps on defense as rookie (63 on special teams) so a count of that nature is ground level in Year 2. And it wouldn’t be surprising to see him trying to get his bearings in his second season and trying to carve out snaps with Crosby and Koonce ahead of him.
Ceiling: Inside-Out Enforcer
A sophomore surge from Wilson would be bolster the Raiders defensive line tremendously as it’ll give Las Vegas more teeth on the edge and oomph on the inside.
Wilson can be viewed as too rigid to be a pure edge and a little to light to be a full-time interior defensive lineman yet Las Vegas does need a defensive end that can stymie the run on the reg, which Wilson can provide if he’s on point. While he isn’t a large defensive tackle like Christian Wilkins (6-foot-4 and 310 pounds), Wilson offers plenty of power and push despite being lighter.
The Raiders did move Wilson inside to maximize reps and, according to defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, to refine the young defender’s hand work.
“The moving the defensive end inside, that’s always been a part for any rookie edge rusher, both for myself and for (defensive line coach) Robbie Leonard,” Graham noted. “It teaches them to use their hands, because they’re dealing with the more immediate block from the guard or the center, so I thought that was really critical to Tyree’s development that’s going to help him out on the edge.”
Improved hand fighting and renewed sense of urgency on the edge can elevate Wilson’s game raising the ceiling. If he does show he can produce bouncing inside and out, it’ll give the Raiders a powerful dual presence.
The ceiling for Wilson is playing all 17 games with more starts (half would be ideal) and doubling his sack count in Year 2 to seven. Double-digit sacks from Wilson is a pipe dream, but what both Crosby and Koonce have in agility, bend, and speed around the edge, Wilson tops them in the power/bull rush department. And having to contend with the different styles that trio of edge rushers brings can fatigue opposing offensive linemen both mentally and physically over the course of a game.
Wilson doubling tackles for loss this coming season should be doable (from two to four) considering the presence of Crosby, Koonce, Wilkins, and Adam Butler in various formations and alignments. Each of those proved they can collapse the pocket, rush the quarterback, and collect sacks.
