The Las Vegas Raiders open their season relying on their 2023 first-round pick, Tyree Wilson—no time like the present following Malcolm Koonce’s injury. Is this an optimal scenario? Probably not; however, the Silver and Black will have to adapt heading into Sunday.
As most people are aware by now, Patrick Graham’s defense will be without one of its rising talents, Koonce, to start the season. On Saturday, they placed him on IR, which means he will miss at least four games. While not necessarily doomsday-level news, it still stings. However, the pressure now shifts to Wilson, whether unfair or not. The seventh overall selection last year will need to begin justifying his high selection right out of the gate against the Los Angeles Chargers to open the season.
Following the Koonce development, Wilson spoke on what all of it meant when asked by ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez.
“I’ve been practicing for my moment. I hate it; Malcolm’s my brother. But this is the start of the season so I’ve got to go out there and represent, like he would want me to.”
Losing Koonce hurts on many levels, most notably the Raiders’ pass rush. Everyone expects Maxx Crosby and Christian Wilkins to do their thing—but now we expect the same from Wilson (as well as Janarius Robinson). Wilson’s rookie season was, for all intents and purposes, underwhelming. That’s the nicest way of putting it. However, he was thrust into the spotlight after the fallout from the Chandler Jones saga—much like last season, Wilson is being thrown into the fire again.
Raiders DE Tyree Wilson is ready to turn the page…
At this point, 2023 is in the rearview mirror. It was far from what everyone wanted to see from Wilson, but now it’s onto Year 2. Wilson himself is cognizant of how different this offseason was, and while certainly not wishing ill on any of his teammates, Koonce’s injury forces an opportunity on him. Thankfully, he got back to the basics, as he explained to Gutierrez.
“This training camp was great. Actually getting to work on fundamentals and being able to know different formations and backfield sets that helped me get the edge on the offense. So, this training camp was way different than last year.”
Well, Tyree… Let’s see what you got.