NFL Draft: Darnell Wright is 'ready to go' as the best 'plug-and-play' option at offensive tackle
Darnell Wright’s game tape speaks for itself. Any NFL teams in need of “a pure offensive tackle,” should have their eyes on Tennessee’s All-SEC right tackle in this week’s NFL Draft, according to NFL Network Draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah.
“I think if you are just saying as a pure tackle,” Jeremiah said last week on a conference call wit reporters, “(Wright’s) tape is really, really good. And playing on the right side this year, everybody has talked about the fact that he took a big leap in this year, but it’s hard to find guys that are 330 pounds that move like him and are as strong as he is at right tackle.
“I think he is plug-and-play. I think he is ready to go.
Wright has widely been projected to be drafted in the middle of the first round. The NFL Draft gets started with the first round Thursday night in Kansas City.
Darnell Wright coming off breakout All-SEC season at right tackle
Wright anchored Tennessee’s offensive line during his breakout season and was named a First Team All-SEC pick by the Associated Press, USA Today and SEC Coaches. He was a semifinalist for the Lombardi Award and was twice named the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week.
On ESPN’s ranking of the best players available in the NFL Draft, Wright is ranked No. 15 overall and No. 4 among offensive tackles, with a draft grade of 91. Offensive tackles Peter Skoronski (Northwestern), Broderick Jones (Georgia) and Paris Johnson Jr. (Ohio State) were ranked ahead of Wright.
Jeremiah’s breakdown of the tackles available in the draft agrees with Skoronski at No. 1, but he has Wright ranked higher than others.
“I have a higher grade on Skoronski,” Jeremiah said. “I think Skoronski can play tackle. I think Skoronski can be a good tackle, but I think Skoronski can be an unbelievable guard.
“My order there would be Skoronski and then Wright but I have in my final ranking I have Paris Johnson, Darnell Wright, Broderick Jones. They’re literally 16, 17, 18 on my list.”
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Either way, all four have bright futures ahead of them in the NFL. And that starts most immediately with Wright.
“I think all four of those guys are going to be starters,” Jeremiah said. “I think if you had to play a game tomorrow and know you were going to line up and play tackle, I think Darnell Wright might be your best option as a right tackle right away who could plug in there and get going.
“So I don’t think there’s a wrong answer there, but for me personally, I just think Skoronski is the best overall football player.”
Wright last week was named one of the biggest stock risers in this year’s NFL Draft according to ESPN. He was one of seven “draft risers” by ESPN’s Jeff Legwold this week.
Legwold described Wright as a “body-of-work riser.”
“Scouts had a third-round grade on him, at best, in August,” Legwold wrote. “They thought he had been inconsistent at the Vols’ left tackle in 2021. So, in a lot of databases, he opened the season as a Day 2 or even early Day 3 pick. Now, he sits solidly with a first-round grade and is expected to be among the first tackles off the board.”
