Takedown Report

Wrestling helps Football players

Tre Tucker wrestling experience helped put him on Raiders radar

After three fairly sensible picks, the Raiders threw a bit of a curve ball when they selected Cincinnati wide receiver Tre Tucker at 100 overall.

The pick was a head scratcher for several reasons. First and foremost because every draft projection had Tucker closer to the 200s than the top 100. But also because Tucker is exclusively a slot receiver and the Raider already have two good ones in Hunter Renfrow and Jacobi Meyers.

We had questions.

In speaking with Tre Tucker, he mentioned among other things that he was a wrestler in school. A lot of football players talk about having wrestling experience in their background, but usually they’re linemen or maybe linebackers. But a wide receiver?

Tre told the story as to how he used to get in fights with his cousins and they would always win.

“They would slam me all over the place,” Tucker said of his cousins, noting they were state champion wrestlers. “So, I was like, you know what, I think I need to join wrestling. So, I joined it, I fell in love with it all through grade school. I wasn’t nothing but 100 pounds. My freshman year of high school I was wrestling 106. To me it’s just a want-to. I think the sport requires a lot of mental aspects and I think it translates to football. Football is physical, but the mental part is very huge and wrestling kind of boosted that for me.”

Full disclosure, I was a wrestler all through school myself, I naturally respect any football player a bit more with wrestling in their background. It isn’t just a bias thing, it’s knowing the kind of physical skills it instilled in me that benefit me in just about anything else I do.

Raiders GM Dave Ziegler was equally impressed. And it’s those wrestling skills that show up in Tucker’s game that were a big reason he took him well above where most draft projections had him.

“There’s a level of toughness that you have to have to be a wrestler,” Ziegler said. “(Tre Tucker is) a small guy but he plays bigger and he plays with an edge and I think a lot of that toughness comes from wrestling. He also has very good balance and agility when you watch him and if you watch any good wrestlers, that’s one thing that they are able to do is play with leverage, have agility, have balance. … rest of story at Raiderswire.usatoday.com/tre-tucker-wrestling-experience-las-vegas-raiders-radar-nfl-draft-pick

2023 NFL Draft Prospects with Wrestling Backgrounds

by Earl Smith; Photo courtesy of David Stluka

We all love wrestling. That’s what brought us together at InterMat. At the same time, it’s okay to have interests outside of wrestling. For a lot of fans, that interest might be football. And if you like football, it’s hard to beat the NFL draft. There have been mock drafts for months and months (years perhaps), all in preparation for today. Everybody pretends to be an expert and an insider as to how their favorite team will draft.

Bringing it back to wrestling, my thought was, “How many NFL draftees have a wrestling background.” Which led me to looking up the high school credentials over the top-300 draft prospects from a list provided by The Athletic.

We may not hear any of these names on Thursday night, but as the draft progresses, remember these names as they are elite football players that have some sort of wrestling background.

Below are the 11 wrestlers who could get selected in the 2023 NFL draft that have a wrestling background. There’s the possibility that more do; however, we’re just going off of what was listed in their collegiate roster bio.

The number by each prospect is their draft ranking and if accessible, their top wrestling credentials have been listed.

#56 Keeanu Benton (Wisconsin) Defensive Line

High School: Craig, Wisconsin; 2018 Wisconsin DI State Runner-Up.

#59 John Michael Schmitz (Minnesota) Center

High School: Flossmoor, Illinois

#133 Luke Wypler (Ohio State) Center

High School: St. Joseph’s, New Jersey

#182 Anfernee Orjj (Vanderbilt) Linebacker

High School: Rockwall, Texas

#194 Gervarrius Owens (Houston) Safety

High School: Southmoore, Oklahoma

#219 Evan Hull (Northwestern) Running Back

High School: Maple Grove, Minnesota; 2019 Minnesota AAA State Qualifier

#231 John Ojukwu (Boise State) Offensive Tackle

High School: Boise, Idaho

#237 Hunter Luepke (North Dakota State) Fullback

High School: Spencer, Wisconsin; 2x Wisconsin D2 State Champion … rest of story at Rokfin.com/article/13314/2023-NFL-Draft-Prospects-with-Wrestling-Backgrounds

June 9, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized