Tyree Wilson’s Struggles Reflect Raiders’ Ongoing Draft Woes
With just three weeks left in the 2025 NFL season, the Las Vegas Raiders find themselves in a familiar and frustrating position - buried at the bottom of the standings with a 2-12 record and little to show for another year of rebuilding. While the losses might help secure the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since 2007, the bigger question looms: What do they actually have on the roster to build around?
Right now, the answer isn’t encouraging.
Las Vegas has only four former first-round picks still on the team - Kolton Miller, Tyree Wilson, Brock Bowers, and Ashton Jeanty. That’s a sobering stat for a franchise that’s spent years trying to draft its way out of irrelevance. And of those four, Wilson’s trajectory is the most concerning.
Tyree Wilson: From Top-10 Pick to Afterthought?
When the Raiders selected Tyree Wilson with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the vision was clear: pair him with Maxx Crosby and unleash a relentless pass rush on opposing quarterbacks. Two and a half years later, that vision hasn’t materialized - and Wilson is rapidly slipping out of the team’s defensive plans.
Wilson has suited up for all 14 games this season, but his impact has been minimal. He’s totaled just 23 tackles, six tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, four QB hits, one fumble recovery, and one pass deflection. Not exactly the stat line you want from a top-10 edge rusher in Year 3.
The most telling sign of his fall? Wilson played just six defensive snaps in Sunday’s 31-0 loss - a mere 8.7% of the total, tying a career low.
That’s not a rotational role. That’s a benching.
And it’s not like the guy taking his reps is lighting it up either. Charles Snowden, who played a career-high 68.1% of the defensive snaps in that game, posted a 35.5 grade from Pro Football Focus. Yet the coaching staff still gave him the nod over Wilson, which says a lot about where the Raiders see their former first-rounder right now.
A Victim of Instability - But Also Underperformance
To be fair, Wilson hasn’t exactly had a stable environment to develop in. He’s already on his third head coach and third general manager in as many seasons.
That kind of turnover can derail even the most promising prospects. There’s also been talk of possibly kicking him inside to defensive tackle to try and spark something - a move that could suit his frame and skill set better.
But even with those caveats, it’s hard to ignore the lack of production. Through 47 career games, Wilson has just 10.0 sacks. That’s not what you expect from a top-10 pick, especially one drafted to be a disruptive force off the edge.
And then there’s the draft hindsight - always 20/20, but hard to ignore. When the Raiders took Wilson, many fans were clamoring for Jalen Carter.
Given Carter’s legal concerns at the time, the team’s decision to pass was understandable. But the list of players taken after Wilson who’ve already made an impact is long - and painful to revisit for Raider Nation.
Bijan Robinson, Peter Skoronski, Jahmyr Gibbs, Zay Flowers, Jordan Addison, Dalton Kincaid - the list goes on. Many of those names would fill glaring holes on the current roster. Instead, Las Vegas took a swing on upside, and so far, it hasn’t connected.
What Comes Next?
Wilson still has three games left this season, and likely another year to prove he belongs. But the writing on the wall is getting clearer: the odds of the Raiders picking up his fifth-year option are slim. And with another coaching change potentially on the horizon, Wilson could be facing his fourth defensive system in four years.
That’s not an ideal path for development - and it makes it even tougher to envision him turning things around.
For now, Wilson’s story is a microcosm of the Raiders’ larger struggles: missed draft picks, coaching turnover, and a roster still searching for foundational pieces. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that help could be on the way in the form of the No. 1 pick.
But for Las Vegas to finally climb out of this cycle, they’ll need more than just another high draft selection. They’ll need to start hitting on them.