Buses were already pulling away from the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills after a sweltering August training camp practice and nearly every player had retreated inside.
But a few fans lingered, and because they did, wide receiver Tylan Wallace did, too. Wearing his No. 16 jersey, Wallace walked the autograph line, posing for pictures with fans and signing jerseys and footballs.
This scene played out nearly every day all summer.
“I think back to when I was a kid, and how much it would have meant to me to come to a training camp practice and see NFL players in person,” Wallace said. “I didn’t really get to see anything like that growing up. Seeing all the kids out there and knowing how excited they get … I’ll do it every time.”
That’s also been Wallace’s approach in five seasons with the Ravens: Do whatever’s asked, every time.
Wallace is never going to be the guy circled on the opposing scouting report. No defensive coordinator is game-planning to stop him. But whether as a reserve receiver, a fill-in return specialist or a see-guy-get-guy punt gunner, Wallace is a quintessential “glue guy.”
“The more you can do,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh likes to say.
Wallace might not be the best at anything on this Ravens team, but he’s one of the best at many things, and that matters when NFL rules limit how many players can suit up for each game.
“He’s a Swiss Army knife,” says wide receiver Rashod Bateman, who came to the Ravens with Wallace in the 2021 draft class. “That dude’s always prepared. He does a lot for us that a lot of people don’t see.”
Brotherly Love
Wallace says that every time he runs onto the field, he says a prayer that he will make Tracin proud.
“I know he would give anything and everything to be out here playing with me,” Wallace said.
Tylan and Tracin, identical twin brothers, had a vision. From the time they began running around in pee-wee leagues in Fort Worth, Texas, they talked of making it to the NFL together.
“That was always the plan,” Tracin said.
They starred at South Hills High School, where Tylan became a four-star recruit and drew offers from Michigan, Oklahoma and Notre Dame, among others.
Tracin was highly touted, too, as a dual-threat quarterback who as a sophomore threw 32 touchdown passes and ran for 20 more. He frequently tossed touchdown passes to Tylan — until not one, but two ACL injuries scared off a lot of recruiters.
Oklahoma State, however, offered both brothers.
“We played all through growing up, then high school, now [Division] I?” Tracin said. “Keep that going.”
But after redshirting his freshman season, Tracin was shifted to wide receiver — and tore the ACL in his left knee a third time. His playing career was over. At that point, both brothers put their energy into getting one of them to “the league.” Tracin became a student coach and continues on the Oklahoma State staff.
As a sophomore, Tylan Wallace earned first-team Big XII and second-team All-America honors, piling up 1,491 yards and 12 touchdowns on 86 catches. One of his teammates was Ravens running back Justice Hill. Then as a junior, Tylan suffered his own ACL injury.
He came back up to put up solid numbers as a senior — 59 catches for 922 yards and six touchdowns — and was selected by the Ravens in the fourth round, the 19th wide receiver selected in a draft class headlined by Ja’Marr Chase.
“I couldn’t be more proud of him,” Tracin said. “It’s good to see that at least one of us was able to go achieve that [goal].”
Perennial Bubble Guy
Nothing is given to a fourth-round draft pick. A dozen of those selected in the same round as Wallace are out of the league.
Every summer, Wallace feared he might be one of them. Prognosticators would crunch the numbers to try to get to 53 on the roster, size up the receivers and question whether there was room for Wallace.
From his first days in Owings Mills, though, Wallace dived into a special teams role. That resonated with Harbaugh, who cut his teeth as a special teams coach with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Still, cutdown day each August proved tense.
On Aug. 29, 2023, Wallace sat in his car at the Ravens facility as the league’s 4 p.m. cutdown deadline approached, hoping for … nothing.
He knew that if he was summoned to Harbaugh’s office that afternoon, it wouldn’t be to ask about summer vacation.
“I sat there and I waited,” for 20 to 30 minutes, Wallace recalled. “I probably called my brother, called my mom. … It hit 4:05, and I didn’t get a call. 4:10, I’m like, ‘All right, I think I’m OK.'”
Wallace says he didn’t feel that kind of insecurity this past summer after being re-signed to a $2.1 million deal, but he added, “You just never know. I try to keep that in my mind and come out here and do what I’m supposed to do every day.”
At times, he has done things as well as anyone in the NFL could. Last season, he turned a 5-yard pass from Lamar Jackson into an 84-yard touchdown, stiff-arming two Cincinnati Bengals and walking a tightrope along the left sideline for 70 yards.
Wallace’s signature pro play, though, came in December 2023 against the Los Angeles Rams.
After regular punt returner Devin Duvernay was injured, Wallace was the next man up. Until then, he had never fielded a punt in an NFL regular-season game.
Not the best at one thing, among the best at many things.
With the game in overtime, Wallace drifted back and tracked a punt through damp, misty air.
Wallace fielded the punt at the Ravens’ 24-yard line, spun out of a tackle at the 30 — “Make the first guy miss, like they always tell us” — and found a seam up the left sideline. Wallace was nearly tripped up, but after a stumble, he regained his balance and finished off the fourth overtime walkoff punt return in NFL history.
“It’s what you work for your whole life,” he said, “not only to make it to the NFL, but to have an impact on the game.”
Teammates mobbed Wallace as fans roared.
Moments like that are what drive Wallace to sign every ball and talk to every kid after a training camp workout.
“This,” he said, nodding his head around the locker room one day, “isn’t always going to be here. One day, they’re not going to be asking for your autograph. They’re not to be asking to take their picture with you. They might not even know who you are.”
“You can only play this game for so long,” he added. “It’s all gonna end one day. So, seeing how happy it makes people, why not use this moment to do that?”
Tracin says Tylan’s approach surprises him not one bit.
“He was the same way here at OSU,” Tracin said. “He’d always be the last one out [of the stadium]. He’d make sure he signed everyone’s stuff. Anything that can inspire people, can make people happy, he’ll do.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox
Issue 295: October / November 2025
Originally published Oct. 15, 2025