Taking a player at seven overall doesn’t necessarily mean he is going to be the seventh best player in the draft. And it isn’t a great disappointment if his talent level doesn’t line up perfectly with his draft position. But you do hope he isn’t literally the worst player taken on day one of the draft.
So far this season, that has been the case according to Pro Football Focus.
Tyree Wilson comes in with a grade of 36.2 after three games this season, which is the lowest grade of any first round rookie according to PFF.
Wilson had another quiet day, playing just 11 snaps against Pittsburgh and making little impact. Given his draft status, the starting edge role opposite Maxx Crosby should be his, but he isn’t producing enough to justify something greater than occasional snaps.
It’s hard to say whether Wilson’s 11 snaps last week were more a product of his disappointing first two games or missing two practices last week with an illness. Pretty bad when you don’t know whether he was kept off the field for being sick or just plain bad.
But if you think his grade was negatively effected by this past week, you’d be wrong. He was given a grade of 54.2 in those 11 snaps, which means he was considerably worse in the previous weeks which led to his low overall grade.
With Chandler Jones out for personal reasons, Tyree Wilson was supposed to step up. Yes, he was thrust into that role a bit earlier than the team had hoped, but that’s just to say they probably were fine with not getting his best. Not that they expected to get less than nothing from him and have to look elsewhere to replace Jones.
That elsewhere has been a combination of third year De Malcolm Koonce along with practice squad call up Isaac Rochell and DT Jerry Tillery sliding outside on occasion.
Nothing has really worked. But that’s why you draft a player at seventh overall. For them to be the answer. And when they’re not, you are kinda screwed.