Las Vegas Raiders review: Grading the 2021 draft class
By Nico Di Fede
Round 4, Pick 143: Tyree Gillespie, S
The Raiders decided to select another safety, albeit a true safety, a round after selecting Divine Deablo in the 3rd, with the selection of Tyree Gillespie out of Missouri.
Gillespie played a lot of single-high in college, but projected as more of a run-stopping strong safety at the next level, as he lacks the adequate athleticism to go sideline to sideline in the back-end at the NFL level.
Only 13 of his snaps on the year were on defense as he was mostly deployed as a special teamer finishing the season with 1 solo tackle and 7 assists.
I didn’t know whether Deablo would be converted to a linebacker at the time of his selection and I was therefore not a big fan of this pick. Looking back, I still am not because he was projected as a safety that lacks coverage chops, and to me, if you are going to draft a safety within the first four rounds they should be a true free-safety; strong safeties that can tackle but lack in the coverage department are a dime a dozen.
Now if a strong safety lacks great coverage ability but is a play-maker, that is a different story, but such is not the case with Gillespie based on his college production.
Gillespie may turn out to be a good special teamer and a decent backup, but personally, I believe there were better options on the table.
- Performance Grade: N/A (not enough playing time to determine)
- Pick Grade: D