What Darnell Wright said after the Bears picked him at No. 10 overall in the NFL Draft

Everything former Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright said Thursday night during a conference call with Chicago media after he was picked No. 10 overall by the Chicago Bears in the first round of the NFL Draft:

The emotions he experienced on draft night when the call came in

“Man, if I try to describe it I don’t even know what I would say. I’m sitting here, I don’t even know the words. Just shocked. I don’t know. Happy. I’m really happy. Just happy.”

The benefit of having experience on both sides of the offensive line at Tennessee

“It just makes me versatile. I feel like I could play any position, left or right, I don’t think it really matters.”

What’s going through his head in this moment

“I’m trying to put good sentences together and make sure I sound good and stuff, but I don’t know. My head is racing, 1,000 miles per hour, trying to just, I don’t even know what, just talk.”

How much contact he had with the Bears during the pre-draft process, playing for Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy at the Senior Bowl

“It’s funny, I was at the Senior Bowl and Luke was our offensive coordinator, he was part of it, and he’s the offensive coordinator of the Bears. It’s like a full-circle moment a little bit. It’s crazy. It means a lot, that I already have a relationship a little bit with that guy.”

His decision to stay at Tennessee through his senior season, being a four-year starter with the Vols

“We went through a time, everybody knows, we had some things going on. It felt like the whole house was crumbling itself. We didn’t know if we were going to get a bowl ban, we didn’t know. There were so many things happening. But just thinking back, I was like you know, just control what you can control. Then just try to do the best you can. It’s out of your control, just try to be the best you can be. And I think that’s for a lot of situations. Like I couldn’t control the draft, where I was going to go. Although I’m somewhere that I really wanted to be. So it’s almost like a plus; I don’t think a lot of people get that lucky. But I don’t know, just control what you control and do the best with what you’ve got.”

If he had any previous indication of where he might get picked

“I knew Coach C-Mo (Bears offensive line coach Chris Morgan), he liked me a lot. I knew Coach Poles (Bears general manager Ryan Poles) liked me a lot. You never know. You can try to say I think they’re going to pick me, but then again, Coach C-Mo, we actually just got off the phone, he was saying it was so hard to just call you and tell you, hey man, we’re going to pick you. It’s just, you know, that’s part of the game, what they do. I don’t know much about it, I’m sure you don’t want to just show your hand before its dealt. It’s crazy.”

If he expected to be picked as high as No. 10 overall

“I knew as far as my talent, what I could do, I knew I could go this high. But it just took the right team to see that, the right coaches to know what they’re looking at. They know what I can be. I haven’t scratched the surface of what I can be. I think they know that and I know that. And it’s going to fun.”

How well he’s gotten to know Bears offensive line coach Chris Morgan during the pre-draft process

“They brought me in and he also came and worked me out (in Knoxville). He just kicked my ass, I’ll be honest. He wanted to see what I was made of. It was hard but I didn’t quit. I think he respected that.”

How Chris Morgan’s workout was tough

“I mean, he put me through the ringer. We were out there working. You’re about 15 minutes in and you’re going back-to-back-to-back. Then you’re still going back-to-back-to-back and another 10 minutes pass, you’re going. Then another 10 minutes pass. He just wanted to see if I would quit and I just wouldn’t quit.”

If that was the toughest workout he got

“Yeah, because there’s a difference as far as a practice, you’re taking water breaks in between. (In the workout) you’re going back-to-back-to-back. There’s no rest. It will definitely see what you’re made of a little bit in that session.”

What his game against Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. meant for his NFL stock

“I think you could see a bit of who I am in that game. But I don’t know, the Alabama game, to me and people that watch, like a lot of my games, you can go and see what I’m about. I appreciate that game. I like to play against the best players and I feel like Will is one of the best players in the draft. Obviously coaches see that in him as well. I don’t know. It was fun and I just know what I can do. You see it in the Alabama tape but you’ll see it in all the other tape as well.”

How he would describe himself as a player

“You see on tape I’m big and I’m strong, but I don’t think people realize, once they get to see some more of me, they’ll see how athletic I am. And I can play both sides if needed. I know I’m coming into a room where I just want to earn the respect of those guys first. I can play probably anywhere on the line. My athleticism will speak for itself. Then I just want to get better and better at my technique.”

How he thinks Bears offensive line coach Chris Morgan can take his game to the next level

“Man, we talked about it. I’m not going to tell you everything we talked about, but we talked about a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of stuff I need to work on, there’s a lot of stuff I do that (is done) really well. And I think it’s rare that you get to go somewhere that you really get to get coached by someone that you really like, that you really feel like can take your game to the next level. That’s what I feel like C-Mo can do for me. He already told me it’s going to be hard, but I’ve never shied away from hard. I just want to get the best out of myself. And I think Coach C-Mo is going to be perfect for me. It’s going to be perfect.”

What it means to be picked ahead of other offensive linemen in the draft

“I think the teams know. They do this for a living. This is their job. They know what they’re doing. I’m just happy they believed in me and saw what I think a lot of people saw, but maybe some people didn’t. I’m just happy they believed in me, really.”

What excites him about the chance to block for Bears quarterback Justin Fields

“That’s my only plan. That’s what I’m there for. Anything he needs. That’s my job, to keep him clean. An amazing quarterback. And the things he does, we’re going to have a great team. A very good team. It’s going to be great. Whatever I can do, no matter what that role is for the team, protecting him, that’s my job.”