There aren’t that many players in the league that are under more pressure to meet expectations than first-round selections.
That’s how it’s been for rookie defensive tackle Jerry Tillery.
Taken with the No. 28 overall selection of the 2019 NFL draft, Tillery was brought in to add juice to a defensive line that needed to get after the quarterback from the inside to take stress away from defensive ends Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram.
At first glimpse, Tillery’s numbers wouldn’t suggest a defender that’s doing that as he’s only posted 11 total tackles and 1.5 sacks through 12 games.
But for coach Anthony Lynn, he doesn’t let the stat sheet depict how he feels about the former Notre Dame product.
“I think Jerry has done some good things. He’s long, he’s athletic, he hustles. I love his effort. He might not have the production with sacks, but pressures. He has applied some pressures, which I think are more important than sacks,” Lynn said.
When going further in depth with how Tillery has been performing through the bye week, it’s clear that he’s getting pressure. It might be on every play, but the flashes are there.
There are a few reasons why Tillery hasn’t been effective and one of them is because he hasn’t been used in obvious passing downs, as the team has resorted to defensive end Isaac Rochell in that role.
The other reason is more from a technical standpoint. We pointed out that with how tall he is, he struggles with leverage. Also, he hasn’t been able to counter through double teams.
The bottomline is while Tillery isn’t dominating on a weekly basis, it doesn’t mean he’s a bust. It is never okay to label a first-round pick, let alone any player that in their first season.
Tillery is young and with an offseason to develop, there’s hope he can combine that with his natural physical traits and become a better player in his second year and beyond.