The Raiders took a big swing in the draft last year when they selected Tyree Wilson with the seventh-overall pick.
Wilson was one of the most physically gifted players to enter the draft in recent years, but he was widely considered a project player by draft evaluators. He wasn’t healthy for most of his rookie season and the hope was that a lingering foot injury played a role in his lack of production.
Wilson is believed to be at full strength this year, but according to The Athletic’s Vic Tafur, the former first-round pick has not stood out in training camp.
“I wouldn’t say Tyree has had a great camp,” Tafur said on the Just Win podcast. “I think Tyree is still kind of a project. All offseason we heard about [Tyree] having a great offseason and going to really take off this year… I don’t know if [he] is going to have an impact this year, which is fine because they have other guys, but for a guy who was a first-round pick, I think he still struggles at times getting off the ball… I wouldn’t say he has taken another step forward at this camp so far.”
It’s far too early to write off Wilson (shouldn’t even be a conversation at this point), but it has to be a little disappointing for the coaching staff to see him get off to a slow start.
Maxx Crosby has served as a mentor to Wilson since he joined the Raiders, and he has said that Wilson has “all the ability” to be a great player. Crosby also talked about how Wilson needed to learn better work habits when he entered the league.
Via NFL Network’s The NFL Report in March, this was Crosby on Wilson’s growing pains as a first-year player in the NFL…
“[Tyree Wilson} was hurt. He wasn’t able to be with us in OTAs. He missed half of camp with the injury, so it kind of was a slower process to get him fully ingrained and understand what it takes to be a professional, and be a part of our group, and be a part of something that’s bigger than just ourselves. He came a long way from the beginning. From week one to week 18 was like night and day.
[Brian Baldinger] was very honest about it. You see Baldy make videos of like ‘What is he doing? Why is he not getting off the ball?’ and it was real. Some people were sensitive about it, but at the end of the day, if you’re not held accountable and you don’t understand what you have to do and why we’re doing it, then you’ll never improve.
This business is a production-based business. I don’t care how good you look, how big you are, how fast you are in a track suite at the combine with tights on… what matters is what you do on a daily basis while you’re in that building…
Tyree is a guy who wants to be great. He works at it. He has been working at it and he understands what it takes to do it on a daily basis and I’m constantly showing him that and other guys are also doing it, and Tyree is a part of that now… He’s going to be a great player in this league. He’s a guy that got all the size, all the ability. It’s just about putting it all together and everybody’s timeline is different.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Not surprised that he probably is a bust, look who drafted him.