2023 NFL Draft Preview: Scouting report on Texas Tech’s Tyree Wilson

Despite addressing the edge room last offseason with the likes of Uchenna Nwosu and Boye Mafe last offseason, Seattle still needs more talent at the position. They struggled with generating pressure when Nwosu didn’t get home and it is a relatively shallow unit overall. Luckily this year’s draft class is deep in terms of edge talent at the top. We’ve already broken-down Clemson edge defender Myles Murphy and former Alabama edge Will Anderson, in this article we are going to review what 6’6”, 275 lbs, Texas Tech edge Tyree Wilson brings to the table.

Strengths

• His hands are very heavy and accurate as they are able to move blockers back at the point of contact. His hands rarely leak to the outside of the blocker.
• Wilson’s best pass rushing move is his bull rush, where he is able to gain leverage on the blocker with proper hand placement and drive into his lower half.
• Wilson has a good long-arm move which is a solid because of the power he has in his hands as well as his length.
• Wilson does show off a good and smart swim move when he rushes up field to set up the blocker, and he then swims them to the inside once they over commit with their hips and shoulders. His swim move is not loopy as he is able to get his hands up and over the blocker relatively quickly.
• He does not have a true counter move, although he keeps his lower half and hands working which results in multiple effort pressures and sacks for him.
• He does a great job of setting the edge on outside runs as he rushes straight up field and turns the blocker in, completely sealing off of the edge and forcing the running back to the inside. When defending option plays Wilson hardly ever crashes down too much on the mesh point, rather staying patient and waiting for the quarterback to make a decision.
• He has fantastic pursuit routinely chasing down ball carries from the back side of the play or going from into the backfield and then making a tackle 7 yards down the field.
• It is difficult for blockers to move him on run plays whether he is lined up on the inside or the outside and he has the FBI and hands needed to split double teams with some regularity.

Weaknesses

• Wilson does not have much of a speed move as he is relatively slow off of the line in both a 2- and 3-point stance. He does not do a great job of quickly reducing the space between him and the tackle off of the snap as he can be rather sluggish with his first two steps.
• Wilson lacks an overly advanced move in his repertoire.
• He is not a very bendy athlete, so he is rarely able to use any type of dip or ghost move to attack the outside shoulder of the blocker.
• When he was in zone coverage his depth was questionable and in man coverage, he did not take great angles, nor did he have the speed to stay with the offensive player.

Floor/ceiling

Wilson’s strong hands, power as a player, fantastic motor, high end pursuit and versatility gives him the ceiling of a 3-down solid starter.

On the flip side, his lack of a true counter, burst off of the line and no advanced moves gives him the ceiling of a low end 3-down starter.

Grade – Solid 3 down starter – Mid first

Grade explanation – Wilson is not a flashy player. He is not going to burn a tackle by exploding around them off of the snap, nor is he going to post 14+ sack seasons. However, Wilson is a safe, high floor player. He has multiple pass rushing moves that he will be able to use to defeat blockers at the pro level and he is a force against the rush. His lack of an advanced move does knock down his grade a bit, but he is still a player who is going to get 8-10 sacks a season and be strong against the run making him an extremely valuable piece to a team’s front seven.

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