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Crosby to Help Guide Wilson This Spring

The Las Vegas Raiders' 2023 first-round pick, defensive end Tyree Wilson, has the luxury of learning from one of the best edge rushers in the game -- Maxx Crosby.
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Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Tyree Wilson was dealt a lousy hand going into his rookie season after suffering a season-ending injury as a senior in college.

Next season, Wilson will have a year under his belt and should be healthy going into training camp. With those factors and the support of 2023 Defensive Player of the Year finalist Maxx Crosby, Wilson has a great opportunity to prove to the league why he went in the Top 10 of the 2023 NFL Draft.

"I know Tyree took some time; think about it, he didn't have an offseason," Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce said at the NFL Combine on Feb. 28. "He had surgery, couldn't really work out, but boom, we throw him in the fire and he's not quite there yet. And he came up very strong at the end, and we talked about it, he said: 'Listen, I'm going to take some time, go with my family.' 

The Las Vegas Raiders' 2023 first-round pick, defensive end Tyree Wilson (9), has the luxury of learning from one of the best edge rushers in the game -- Maxx Crosby (98).

The Las Vegas Raiders' 2023 first-round pick, defensive end Tyree Wilson (9), has the luxury of learning from one of the best edge rushers in the game -- Maxx Crosby (98).

"Which I think he needs to. But the one thing I do know is that he's going to be back in here early in March before we get started April 15, and he's going to be with Maxx. And that's Maxx's No. 1 job is to get and bring Tyree along, but that's also Tyree's job.

"Because we could want it, but Tyree's got to want it as well, and I think he does because last year, he got humbled. When you're the seventh pick overall and you don't have the year that he expected to have, and you hear all the outside noise -- and he knows it, it wasn't good, hell no, it was ugly, it wasn't pretty at the beginning, but that's OK. He worked on it, he worked on it, and you saw the improvement. 

"And that's the one thing you can say to yourself: 'OK, there's a gleam, a little glimmer of light that you think, going forward, that the light switch[ed].' And you never know when that's going to happen as a player, right? And especially as a rookie because they all come in, they're alphas, they've got money ... but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter, because if you don't produce on Sundays, nobody cares."

The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit, Mich., on April 25-27, 2024. The Las Vegas Raiders currently have the No. 13 overall pick.

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