'I'm literally in shock': What Darnell Wright said after getting picked in top ten of the NFL Draft
Darnell Wright met with Chicago media in a Zoom call late Thursday. At the time of the call, he was still in shock that he had been picked at No. 10 overall by the Chicago Bears earlier in the night.
“I’m literally in shock,” Wright said during the call, according to ChicagoBears.com’s Larry Mayer. “I’m just trying to put good sentences together and stuff. My head is racing 1,000 miles per hour.”
Wright became Tennessee’s first first-round pick since Derek Barnett went at No. 17 overall to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017. He’s Tennessee’s highest-drafted offensive lineman since Ja’Wuan James went No. 19 overall to the Miami Dolphins in 2014.
Darnell Wright becomes Tennessee’s first first-round pick since 2017
Wright is Tennessee’s highest-drafted offensive lineman since 1991, when Charles McRae and Antone Davis went back-to-back at No. 7 and No. 8 overall, respectively.
“I knew as far as my talent and what I can do — I knew I could go this high,” Wright said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “But it just took the right team to just see that, the right coaches who know what they’re looking at.
“They know what I can be. I haven’t even reached my (potential). I’m just scratching the surface of what I can be. I think they know that. And I know that. It’s going to be fun.”
The Bears coaching staff worked firsthand with Wright during his standout week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., including offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and offensive line coach Chris Morgan.
“It’s rare that you get to go somewhere where you really get to get coached by someone you really like and you feel like can take your game to the next level,” Wright said in the Chicago Tribune report.
“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.”
Morgan got everything he could out of Wright when he put him through a workout in Knoxville later in the pre-draft process.
“He kicked my ass, if we’re being honest,” Wright said. “He wanted to see what I was made of. It was hard, but I didn’t quit. I think he respected that. He put me through the ringer. We were out there working. He just wanted to see if I’d quit, and I wouldn’t quit.”
Darnell Wright ‘has the ability to be the best player in this draft’
Wright anchored Tennessee’s offensive line during his breakout junior 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.
ESPN’s Louis Riddick was all in on Wright to the Bears in the moments after the pick was announced.
“I believe that this young man, when it’s all said and done, has the ability to be the best player in this draft,” Riddick said.
“You see on tape, I’m big and strong,” Wright added on the Zoom call. “But I don’t think people will realize once they really get to see more of me, they’ll see how athletic I am and that I can play both sides as needed.
“I know I’m coming into a room. I just want to earn the respect of those guys first. But I can probably play anywhere on the line. My athleticism will speak for itself. I just want to get better and better at my technique.”
