Five Tennessee players ranked on Pro Football Focus 2023 NFL Draft Big Board

Pro Football Focus has five Tennessee players on its 2023 NFL Draft Big Board, ranking the top 150 players available — offensive tackle Darnell Wright, wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, wide receiver Cedric Tillman, quarterback Hendon Hooker and edge rusher Byron Young.

The NFL Draft will start with the first round on April 27 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. ESPN’s Mike Tannenbaum, the former NFL general manager turned draft analyst, had Hooker, Wright and Hyatt as first-round picks in his updated mock draft on Tuesday.

Wright was the ranked highest among the group at No. 20 overall, ahead of Hyatt at No. 76, Tillman at No. 86, Hooker at No. 88 and Young at No. 111.

Wright, 6-foot-6, 335-pound senior, was a breakout star on Tennessee’s offensive line last season. He was named First Team All-SEC by the Associated Press, USA Today and SEC Coaches and was a semifinalist for the Lombardi Award. He was twice named the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week.

Tennessee right tackle Darnell Wright allowed only eight QB pressures last season

“Wright is a four-year starter who finally saw the proverbial light flip on this past fall,” PFF’s Michael Renner wrote this week. “His tape against Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr. was outstanding, as he allowed only one pressure in that game and eight for the season.”

Hyatt, Tennessee’s first Biletnikoff Award winner, led college football and set a new Tennessee single-season record with 15 touchdowns while erupting onto the scene during his junior season. He finished with 1,267 receiving yards, only 31 yards short of matching the Tennessee record held by Robert Meachem, who had 1,298 yards in 2006.

Hyatt set a new Tennessee single-game record when he caught five touchdowns in the 52-49 win over Alabama in October, finishing the game with six catches for 207 yards. 

“Hyatt possesses elite juice to stretch the field,” Renner wrote for PFF. “That helped him house 15 scores this past season. It was a massive breakout year, as he finished with 67 catches for 1,267 yards.”

Tillman had a breakout redshirt junior season in 2021, catching 64 passes for 1,081 yards — fifth most in Tennessee football history — and 12 touchdowns. Last season he was limited to just six games played due to a high-ankle sprain suffered in a 63-6 win over Akron in September at Neyland Stadium. He caught 37 passes for 417 yards and three touchdowns over his final six games with the Vols.

“Tillman is the most physical receiver in the draft class,” PFF wrote. “He’s a safe bet as a possession receiver, as he dropped only five of his 104 career catchable targets.”

Vols’ QB Hendon Hooker is ‘a gifted runner with an NFL-caliber right arm’

Hooker, who tore his ACL in November, played two seasons at Tennessee, passing for 6,080 yards, 58 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He completed 68.8 percent of his 632 pass attempts with the Vols. In 11 games last season, Hooker completed 69.6 percent of his passes, throwing for 3,135 yards, 27 touchdowns and two interceptions.

“Hooker is a gifted runner with an NFL-caliber right arm,” Renner wrote for PFF, “and he made strides in each season as a starter.”

During his two-year career at Tennessee, Young recorded 83 total tackles — 42 solo, 41 assisted — with 23.5 tackles for loss and 12.5 sacks. He had a breakout junior season in 2021, with 46 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks and an interception in 10 games. He had 34 tackles, 10.0 tackles for loss and 5.0 sacks in 12 games last season.

At the NFL Scouting Combine earlier this month, Young measured in at 6-foot-2, 250 pounds and was clocked at a blazing 4.43 seconds in the 40-yard dash. He had 32.5-inch arms, an 11-foot broad jump and a 38-inch vertical.

“Young is a wound-up dude off the edge,” PFF wrote. “He’s just figuring out how to rush the passer but has the traits to develop with the 4.40-second 40-yard dash he ran at the NFL Combine.”