During the 2023 NFL Draft, the Raiders decided to swing for the fences rather than take a chance on a “safer” prospect. They passed on Jalen Carter and Christian Gonzalez for Tyree Wilson, betting on his upside as a pass rusher.
It wasn’t a surprise that Wilson had a rough rookie season, especially when you consider that he missed nearly the entire offseason rehabbing from a foot injury. But going into Year 2, there is a lot of pressure on him to start performing like a top-10 pick.
In a recent article by Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus, he ranked the top 10 players under the most pressure to succeed during the 2024 season. That list included Wilson, who had a sub-par rookie season. Here is what Monson had to say about the second-year pass rusher from Texas Tech:
(Wilson) was so anonymous within games that the tendency is to assume he didn’t feature much, but he played 493 total snaps, rushed the passer 308 times and notched just 24 total pressures. He posted just a 50.4 PFF pass-rushing grade and won only 6.4% of his pass-rush snaps.
By any measure, this was an extremely poor rookie season for a player who was always more of an athletic project than some other pass-rushers in the draft. Wilson now needs to take a big step forward in the offseason to avoid going down as yet another Raiders first-round miss.
By all accounts, Wilson has gotten himself into fantastic shape and he appears ready to play more snaps as a defensive tackle. That is great news for the Raiders, especially with the development of Malcolm Koonce on the edge.
If Wilson can become an impact player for Las Vegas this season, they could have one of the best defensive lines in the league. And if he starts living up to his top-10 pick status, the Raiders should have a dominant defense for the first time in nearly four decades.
