NFL Draft Profile: Darnell Wright

Taking a closer look at Tennessee OT Darnell Wright

Tennessee right tackle Darnell Wright is one of the more underrated tackles in this draft class. While Paris Johnson Jr. and Broderick Jones offer more athleticism and Peter Skoronski offers excellent technical ability, Wright offers a strong blend of the two. The right tackle spot isn’t as highly valued as the left tackle spot, but with the growing number of teams with two strong edge rushers, having a good right tackle that can pass protect is becoming more and more important. 

It might not appear as though the Commanders would need a right tackle in the first round of the draft after signing Andrew Wylie and moving Sam Cosmi inside to guard, but there are those that believe Wylie’s more natural position is inside at guard too. So drafting a tackle shouldn’t be out of the equation for Washington. They could easily put Cosmi at left guard next to an experienced vet like Charles Leno at left tackle and then have Wylie as the experienced vet at right guard next to a rookie right tackle. 

Wright has been all over draft boards and mock drafts. Some have him going as high as Washington at 16 while others have him falling to the second round. Having now watched a few games of him, I wouldn’t at all be disappointed with drafting him at 16 and would be thrilled about landing him in the 20s after trading back. 

So what does Wright offer NFL teams looking to draft him? Let’s take a closer look:

Pass protection

In pass protection, Wright shows a variety of different moves that give multiple options in the toolbox to help him handle different styles of edge rushers. One of his best games this year came against Will Anderson Jr, largely considered the best edge rusher in this draft class and expected to be a top five pick in April. Anderson brings a lot of power rushes, but at 6-foot-5, 333 pounds, Wright has the size and bulk, along with the technique, to combat Anderson’s power.

Here you can see how Anderson works off the right side of the line against Wright. Anderson attempts a little stutter step move before converting to a bull rush. Wright allows Anderson to get his hands inside after the stutter step, but quickly looks to place his own hands to reestablish the leverage. Wright drops his hands low and gets under the elbows of Anderson, allowing him to then bring his hands back up and onto Anderson’s chest. That enables him to gain leverage and force Anderson’s momentum upwards instead of getting driven back. That completely negates Anderson’s rush, who can’t work to a back up plan before the ball is thrown.

You might think that at Wright’s size, he can cope with more power-based rushers and struggle against quicker speed rushers on the edge, but you’d be wrong. Wright also faced another top pass rusher in this draft class, BJ Ojulari from LSU, who is much more of a speed rusher than Anderson. Wright showed in that game that he was able to match the speed on the edge too.

On this play, Wright knows Ojulari is much more of a threat to attack up the field and work around the corner compared to Anderson who is more likely to convert his rush to power. That means Wright doesn’t need to worry so much about keeping a strong and stable base and protecting inside, but more urgently needs to get to the edge to cut off the speed from Ojulari and force him to work to a back up plan. That’s exactly what he does here, using a good kick slide to get out to Ojulari and cut off his speed rush. Having had his speed rush cut off, Ojulari attempts to convert to power, but Wright is too strong for him and uses good hands to negate any transition to power before shoving him upfield beyond the quarterback.

Wright used a variety of different moves to counter speed. He didn’t just rely on his kick slide to cut off the speed, he worked in some quick sets to throw off timing and take control of the block early.