Tyler Wilson Drafted By The Oakland Raiders

Congratulations Tyler!

Here's the draft profile we wrote about Tyler earlier this week.

Strengths

Simply put, Tyler Wilson was the unquestioned leader of the Razorbacks for two years, including what was arguably the most tumultuous year in Arkansas history. As a senior, was relied on much more for leadership than the coaching staff, and set several Arkansas passing records in the process.

He shows absolutely no fear. Among many memorable moments is Wilson's breakout game when he came in for an injured Ryan Mallett against eventual national champion Auburn in 2010. Many fans didn't think Arkansas had a shot when Mallett went down, but Wilson kept Arkansas in the game, even briefly taking the lead in the 4th quarter.

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He's a very accurate passer, extremely so when he has time, with a decent deep ball. He has average speed, but isn't afraid to take a hit and will wait until the last possible moment to deliver a ball if necessary. His toughness is well renowned in that regard.

Weaknesses

That willingness to stay in the pocket has nearly killed him. He's taken several violent hits and suffered a concussion early in the 2012 season during The Unspeakable Game. That caused him to miss the Alabama game but he played the rest of the year and is fine now, but he'll need to do a better job of avoiding those hits in the NFL.

He took some heat for calling out people for quitting during the Alabama game, but most people understood there was no leadership from the coaches at that point, so locally few were upset with him.

When the team was struggling he tried to force things to happen during the dreadful 2012 season and that's when he made most of his mistakes. I believe he felt a huge responsibility to have a great season and when it didn't happen he grew frustrated, but so was everybody else.

Verdict

It'd be much easier to prognosticate Wilson if we knew how well Ryan Mallett was doing in New England. Bobby Petrino's quarterbacks from Louisville never did much in the NFL, but Wilson (and Mallett) seem to have all the tools to have a fine career. Arkansas didn't have a very good offensive line in 2011 nor 2012, so if he can get drafted by a team with a solid line, I think he'll be pretty good.

He could have entered the draft in 2012 and possibly would have been a first round pick. He strongly considered it but came back for what everyone thought could be a fantastic season. When Petrino was fired and the coaching staff began to mail it in, obviously that didn't go as planned, but no one blames Wilson for it.

You have to understand, Petrino was as much the quarterbacks coach as the head coach, so Wilson's coaching was essentially nonexistent throughout the year. In 2011, it was commonplace to see Petrino screaming at Wilson on the sidelines, but in 2012, no one was there to help develop or train him. Coaches even said they basically just let him do what he wanted. It will be a great thing for Wilson to be in a healthy situation again.