Best Available: Where Tennessee RB Jaylen Wright is ranked to start Day 3 at the NFL Draft
The second and third rounds of the NFL Draft came and went Friday night in Detroit without Tennessee junior running back Jaylen Wright hearing his name called.
That should change, and could change quickly, Saturday afternoon, when the fourth round of the draft begins at Noon Eastern Time on ESPN and NFL Network.
According to ESPN’s rankings, Wright enters Day 3 of the draft as the 16th-best player left on the board. The final four rounds — Rounds 4-7 — are all held Saturday.
Four running backs have been picked so far in the draft. Jonathan Brooks (Texas) heard his name first, taken in the second round by the Carolina Panthers with the 46th overall pick. Florida State’s Trey Benson (No. 66 overall), Michigan’s Blake Corum (No. 83) and USC’s MarShawn Lloyd (No. 88) were all picked in the third round.
‘He’s a threat to go the distance every time he touches the ball’
ESPN has Wright ranked as the fifth best running back in the draft and No. 97 overall with a grade of 71.
“Wright had the second-fastest 40-yard dash out of all the running backs who ran at the combine this year,” ESPN’s Steve Muench wrote in his pre-draft analysis of Wright. “He’s a threat to go the distance every time he touches the ball. With his quickness, Wright can make safeties miss without losing much momentum and he has the extra gear to pull away once he gets a step.
“He steps out of tackles, flashes good contact balance and falls forward at the end of runs. Wright catches passes in stride and that speed makes him a threat after the catch.”
Wright started the week with most NFL mock drafts projecting him to be picked in the third round Friday night.
Wright carried 137 times last season for 1,013 yards and had four rushing touchdowns while averaging 7.4 yards per carry. He caught six passes for 22 yards.
Jaylen Wright at Tennessee: 2,297 yards, 18 TDs, 6.2 ypc
In three seasons at Tennessee, Wright ran for 2,297 yards and 18 touchdowns on 368 attempts. He had 409 yards and four touchdowns as a freshman in 2021 and 875 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2022. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry in 2021 and 6.0 yards per carry in 2022.
He turned heads heads and climbed draft boards coming out of the Combine after he was clocked at 4.38 seconds in the 40, jumped 11-2 in the broad jump and had a 38-inch vertical.
“Jaylen Wright’s so explosive and so dynamic,” NFL Network analyst Jeremiah said this week during a conference call previewing the draft. “In terms of finding fits for him and those guys, look, the speed play is anywhere. I always go back to Kansas City continuing to add speed. I don’t care how many running backs, how many guys they have.
“When I see guys with big-time juice like that, that’s the first team that jumps into my mind.”
