Washington Football Team: Four Day 2 WR prospects to look for
No. 3 – Oklahoma State WR Tylan Wallace
With the potential to be the teams starting Z receiver, Tylan Wallace is a great possession receiver and someone who is no stranger to making big plays.
Wallace’s time at Oklahoma State University went fantastic for the four-star recruit. His longest reception as a Cowboy went for 90 yards. His sophomore season showed his ability to be a bell-cow wideout with over 145 targets, Tylan Wallace is the truth.
Wallace showed the ability to play well inside and outside. He made big plays and scored an abundance of touchdowns despite an ACL injury in 2019.
Wallace’s unique ability to make contested catches, burn corners with explosive straight-line speed, combined with his strong hands, will prove to be a skill set that is valuable and translatable at the next level.
He primarily did his work outside for the Cowboys, as he played over 90 percent of his snaps lined up out wide. For a wideout that doesn’t have great agility and finesse in and out of his breaks, he is a fantastic deep threat and a chain mover through and through.
Over his last three seasons at Oklahoma State, he totaled 205 catches for 3,434 yards and 26 touchdowns. Over his entire four-year career at OKST, he averaged nearly 17 yards per reception, with 33 avoided tackles after reception.
The advanced metrics prove how impactful Wallace was in college, as he placed in the near 90th percentile in terms of a receiving grade, the 80th percentile in terms of yards per route run, and a tick above the 75th percentile in terms of contested catch rate.
He was tied for fifth in 2020 in terms of deep catches at 12, and he had the fourth most contested catches at 13. Lastly, he finished within the top 13 of his class with over 400 deep yards last season.
In addition to his sensational numbers, Wallace is a phenomenal wideout from the intermediate and deep levels, as his quarterbacks boasted a 106.9 passer rating when targeting him on throws of 10 or more yards.
Tylan Wallace would be an upgrade on the outside, despite some questioning his ability to get off of press-man at the next level. He’s shown the ability to do so more often than not in the Big 12, but even if he isn’t able to be the answer outside, inside he can be a difference-maker.
Wallace would become a contender to be Washington’s starting outside Z receiver, with the versatility of someone who can play the Y if needed. Wallace is fast enough with straight-line speed to stretch the field vertically, but is sure-handed and technical enough to move the chains and make tough contested catches.