Scott Gulbransen
I’m not here to tell you Tyree Wilson has lived up to the seventh overall pick since being drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders. He hasn’t. Three years in, a 57.6 PFF grade, and a pass-rush win rate that ranks 106th out of 126 edge rushers since 2023. Those numbers don’t lie.
But I’m also not ready to slap the bust label on him and move on. Not yet.
Here’s the thing about Wilson that gets lost in the disappointment: the Raiders have been asking him to do something he was never built to do. They’ve lined him up as a traditional 4-3 defensive end, a wide-9 speed rusher who wins with bend and athleticism off the edge. That’s not his game. It never was.
Wilson is 6-foot-6, 263 pounds. He’s a power player. Length and leverage are his tools, not ankle flexibility and corner speed. And for three years, three different coaching staffs have tried to fit that square peg into a round hole.
Rob Leonard’s 3-4 might finally change that.
The Scheme Fit Nobody’s Talking About
When Klint Kubiak announced at the Combine that the Raiders were shifting to a 3-4 base under Leonard, most of the conversation centered on Maxx Crosby. Fair enough — Crosby’s the best player on the defense. But the more interesting subplot is what this means for Tyree Wilson.
In Leonard’s system, Wilson projects as a 4-technique or 5-technique. That means he’s crashing inside from the shoulder of the tackle, using his length to control gaps and his power to collapse the pocket from the interior. It’s a completely different ask than what he’s been doing.
Think about it. Wilson’s struggles have come when he’s asked to win in space, to bend the corner against NFL tackles who can mirror his rush. Inside? The space shrinks. The game slows down. His length becomes an advantage instead of something he’s trying to compensate for.
Leonard coached Wilson for the past two seasons as the D-line coach. He knows exactly what Wilson can and can’t do. The scheme change isn’t coincidental.
The Tyree Wilson Numbers Behind the Frustration
Wilson’s 2025 wasn’t a complete disaster. He posted career highs in tackles (35) and tackles for loss (8). He forced two fumbles. He generated 35 pressures.
But the finish rate killed him. Wilson had 10 missed tackles, also a career high. A 60.4 pass-rush grade that ranked 77th among qualified edge defenders. The flashes were there, but the consistency wasn’t.
The season-ending stretch against Kansas City offered a glimpse of what could be. Two sacks, two forced fumbles, eight pressures, a 31.2% win rate. Granted, he was going against a backup tackle. But you can only beat what’s in front of you and Wilson dominated that matchup in a way he rarely has in his career.
The question is whether that was a preview or an outlier.
The 5-Year Option Is Almost Certainly Gone
The Raiders have until May 1 to decide on Wilson’s 5th-year option. It would cost roughly $13 million.
They’re not picking it up. I’d be stunned if they did.
John Spytek didn’t draft Wilson. He has no emotional investment in the pick. And paying $13 million for a player who hasn’t cracked a 60 PFF grade in three seasons doesn’t fit how this front office operates. Spytek wants value. Wilson, at that price, isn’t it.
That doesn’t mean Wilson’s done in Las Vegas. It just means 2026 is a prove-it year in the truest sense. He’ll play out the final season of his rookie deal at roughly $8 million, and if he breaks out, he either gets extended or hits free agency with leverage. If he doesn’t, he’s somebody else’s reclamation project.
The Rashan Gary Blueprint
Here’s the optimistic case. Rashan Gary was a top-15 pick for the Packers who looked like a bust through his first two seasons. Then Year 3 hit, he figured out his role, and by October 2023, he’d signed a four-year, $96 million extension.
The physical profiles are similar. Both are long, powerful, and took time to translate college dominance into NFL production. The difference is Green Bay stuck with Gary long enough to let it click.
Wilson is on his third head coach in three years. That kind of instability doesn’t help development. Leonard represents the first real continuity he’s had — a coach who’s been in the building, who knows his strengths and weaknesses, and who’s now installing a scheme that theoretically fits him better.
That’s not nothing.
What to Watch for with Tyree Wilson
Phase One of the offseason program is underway. Wilson’s going to get his first real reps in Leonard’s system over the next few months. By training camp, we should have a sense of whether the 4i/5-technique role actually unlocks something or whether the physical tools just don’t translate at the NFL level.
I’m not predicting a breakout. Wilson hasn’t earned that optimism. But I’m also not writing him off.
The Raiders finally have a scheme that fits his skill set, a coordinator who knows his game inside and out and a front office that will give him one more year to figure it out. If it doesn’t happen in 2026, it’s not happening.
But if it does? This defense suddenly has a real second threat opposite Crosby. And that changes everything.
Related: Jack Bech and Dont’e Thornton Are Auditioning for Their Jobs With the Las Vegas Raiders in 2026
