After finishing 26th in scoring defense for the 2022 season, the Las Vegas Raiders needed to make some changes to that side of the ball. One of the big changes was adding defensive end Tyree Wilson with the seventh overall pick.
Adding him had to force out a veteran from last year’s squad and Tashawn Bower was the obvious candidate. Luckily, he’ll still get a chance to play football this year. The New York Giants announced on July 25 that they have signed Bower to a contract. He has played defensive end throughout his career but the Giants listed him as an outside linebacker, which could be something to watch.
New York will be Bower’s fourth team. He first came into the NFL as an undrafted free agent of the Minnesota Vikings in 2017 and also spent time with the New England Patriots prior to joining the Raiders. He has played in 26 games over his career and has notched 2.0 sacks. He could be a solid depth piece for a strong Giants defensive line.
Josh McDaniels Talks Tyree Wilson
The Raiders already have an expensive defensive end duo with Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones having a combined cap hit of $27.2 million for 2023. Despite that, the team thought it was important to bring in another young pass rusher early in the draft and used their first-round pick to add Tyree Wilson.
While Wilson has big-time potential, the Raiders have yet to see him on the field due to foot surgery he had in November 2022. He’s starting training camp on the non-football injury list and according to head coach Josh McDaniels, they aren’t quite sure when he’ll be able to participate in practice.
“No timeline, but he’s [Wilson] headed in the right direction, no question about it, excited about that,” McDaniels told the media during his July 25 press conference. “And this is, again, just a process that we expected based on what was happening at the time we drafted him. So, we knew that there was going to be a rehabilitation process and then there’s going to be a re-acclamation phase here. He’s doing a great job of everything that he’s doing right now. And once he’s ready to roll, then we’ll re-enter him into practice the right way and then get him ready to go for the regular season.”
You want your power rusher DE to destroy TE’s. Tyree Wilson destroys TE’s
Lots of Unknowns Regarding Tyree Wilson
One look at Tyree Wilson and it’s easy to see why the Raiders would draft him. He’s 6-foot-6, 276 pounds of muscle and lengthy. He’s got the perfect body to be an elite pass rusher. However, the foot injury he suffered at Texas Tech kept him from working out for teams prior to the draft. There’s a lot of projection when it comes to Wilson.
He has the tool to be a very good player. He had 17.0 sacks in four years at Texas Tech and 32.0 tackles for loss. He’s raw and needs some work but there are worst people for him to learn from than Maxx Crosby and Chandler Jones. The Raiders invested a lot in Wilson by using a top-10 pick on him. They need him on the field to try and help improve a struggling defense. It will be fascinating to see the kind of impact he has once he’s able to take the field.
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