I have tried to watch full games of Tyree Wilson, rather than just a highlight film to try to evaluate him. Every time I watch him, I feel underwhelmed. Am I the only one? Slow off the ball and doesn’t do much after with counter moves and change of directions. Seems to win with his size and athletic skills. I just don’t see any explosive movements, maybe because he weighs 275 pounds.
Here is a highlight tape of him, let me know what you think. I would be very disappointed if this was our guy at #6. Not even sure he would find a spot in our DE room. Let me know what I am missing.
He’s strong, and has great hands.
It’s his ability to get skinny and slippery that should translate.
Everyone in the NFL is strong.
I also noticed he has a little bit of that James Houston stutter step.
The more I look, the more I want us to hold the pick IF (longshot) Anderson falls to us. After that, I see the same approximate value in the next tier and that run of talent goes for a bit. Must confess, trading down to 7-12 would be pretty pleasing to me if we can pick up a next year’s first.
Now I acknowledge I am no draft expert, but this is what I get to after seeing, hearing, reading about this year’s prospects. I see very good prospects that can be solid pros. I just don’t see budding superstars in this draft. I am sure I am missing something.
Guys like Tyree Wilson have a track record of success in the NFL. Even ones that couldn’t move as well as Wilson have made their mark in their own way. I won’t go into details about who those guys are because people always nit pick every comparison to death.
I was watching an evaluation of edge guys the other day and the guy doing the analysis got to a certain player I won’t name. He said even though Player X wasn’t as good of a prospect as the guys he had rated ahead of him, he realizes some other people will rate Player X higher due to playing style. He said Player X had a playing style that fans and draftniks can relate to and can easily appreciate. That’s the quick first step, long arms, explosive movements and bend around the edge. That’s kind of been the mantra parroted back to us by “the guru’s” and its everything people are looking for. Tyree Wilson is a different style of player. So if you are looking at him with the same lens as the smaller Von Miller types, of course he is going to come up short.
One thing people need to factor in when evaluating defensive line prospects is that speed and power are relative to eachother. The more you have of one, the less you need of the other…and vice versa. Ziggy Ansah was a good athlete overall but noone would mistake him for Cliff Avril (or going back to the Von Miller comparison). But Ziggy didn’t have to be as explosive and fast as Cliff Avril due to his power. However, Cliff had to be extremely explosive and fast because he didn’t have Ziggy’s power. When a guy like Cliff is trying to get to the QB, the OT is set up for speed. So he’s facing the OT’s best speed pass sets. But when a guy like Ziggy faced the same OT’s, it was a mixed bag. And Ziggy would get around OT’s with less speed and explosiveness because the OT’s feet were slowed down due to setting for Ziggy’s power.
I have brought this up when it comes to Aaron Donald on the interior. Aaron’s quickness works because of his power. They go hand in hand. When fans see a guy with similar quickness to Aaron, they think the prospect is most of the way there. But without the power, the quickness doesn’t work the same. Donald is slowing down the feet of the blockers because they have to constantly keep his power in mind. And that’s before getting into the details of how a powerful guy doesn’t have to beat a blocker as cleanly as the speed guys. If a guy like Cliff Avril doesn’t win the rep quickly and cleanly, the OT can get his hands on him and push him out of the arc. But with a guy like Ziggy he was so powerful that he didn’t have to get passed the OT cleanly to win the rep. He could keep his arc even with the OT riding him and trying to get him off his mark.
Here is a random example. Ziggy didn’t win this rep clean but the OT couldn’t push him off his arc so he got the sack.
Mentioned already & well stated by @Mr.Peabody you have to eval the long guys differently than the shorter twitched up guys
Wilson might not be that twitched off the ball bend kind of guy. He does win with length & great athletic closing ability though.
Think of an analogy like the RB position. Easy to fall in love with the phone booth, change direction backs. The one cut & go backs offer just as much & sometimes more value. Just have to understand that in the eval process.
Player A wins like this, player B wins like this. If either way translates to winning one on one battles in the NFL then that player still offers value to the organization
He’s a finisher. 61 total tackles along with 8 sacks against good competition.
There’s so many d-linemen that beat their blocks put themselves into position to make they play and miss. Wilson consistently makes those plays.
His biggest concerns is his slow get off. Someone else mentioned it could be because he is playing read and react but I don’t think that is always the case. However thats something he could improve on.
Another concern is it sounds like he had ankle surgery and thats why he missed the combine.
It does sound like he is medically cleared and will have a pro day.
This draft is like the draft with Okaduh, there just isn’t a guy there, were gonna take the best of what’s left and probably be underwhelmed. It didn’t matter who we took , Okaduh, Brown or Simmons none were worth the 3 pic. But that was what was left. I feel the same for this draft if we don’t take Carter or he’s not available
I can’t unsee Kevin Strong when you describe this. Buddy was faster of the ball than the center and all you see are these long arms reaching out before the OG is even out of his stance. That’s who you’re describing there. I think of Andre Fluellen, too. Gabe Wright. Guys with those quicks are always going to be given an opportunity, but there’s more to it.
This may be your Den magna opus. Drafting Tyree Wilson felt like settling to me early on in the draft season. I’ve been moving away from that impression for a while now, and you hammered it home.
Same as every draft recently outside of 2021. People weren’t too thrilled with the Walker/Hutch/Thibs trio last year either. Lots of “it’s a really shitty draft to be drafted by #2” sentiment.
I think Tyree is a really good fit for the Lions, we want versatility 3/4 or 4/3, we want a DE that plays the run, plays running QBs, and can still get to the QB. I think this all points to Tyree, now does flash like Chase Young, no but i don’t need all sizzle.
I can see some real interesting fronts with Hutch, Comish, Big Mac, Tyree, and Houston.
Yeah that class was a tough one. There were some who wanted Herbert and that would have been a good pick. But of the guys we were seriously considering (at least as a fanbase), none have worked out.
However in hindsight we could have taken Justin Jefferson, Jalen Hurts, Ceedee Lamb, Tristan Wirfs, or Andrew Thomas and made out like gangbusters. I think the lesson there is twofold: don’t be afraid to reach if you can’t get a pick in the range you think a guy will go, and don’t focus so much on current needs. Very few board members wanted Thomas or Wirfs because it wasn’t a crying need, and yet the very next year we took a RT with a top ten pick. We had Stafford so most people didn’t want a QB. Needs change fast.
Thankfully I think most of the fanbase is coming around to the idea, at least early. Mostly due to the job Brad did filling holes in FA, but still. However we get here, we get here.
