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Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright selected No. 10 overall in NFL Draft

On3 imageby: Brent Hubbs04/28/23Brent_Hubbs
On3 image
Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Darnell Wright is Tennessee football’s newest first-round pick in the NFL Draft. The standout right tackle for the Vols was picked at No. 10 overall by the Chicago Bears Thursday night in Kansas City.

Wright is Tennessee’s first first-round pick sense Derek Barnett in 2017 and was the second offensive tackle off the board on Thursday, behind Ohio State’s Paris Johnson Jr.

When Wright picked Tennessee out of high school as one of the most coveted offensive linemen in his high school class it seemed likely that he’d be in this position in three or four years, having his named called at the NFL draft. 

Two years later though, after he had started 16 games as a freshman and sophomore at right tackle and right guard, Wright’s NFL prospects looked to have dimmed somewhat. He didn’t play poorly by any stretch, but he also didn’t look like a lock turn himself into an early round NFL selection. 

As a junior he moved to left tackle where he started all 13 games during Josh Heupel’s first season in Knoxville. He was solid as a junior, but still looked like a prospect whose NFL future was uncertain. 

Then, last spring he was moved back to right tackle, his natural position, and it’s an understatement to say that things started to click. 

“We had a talk after the (2021) season and felt like, to give us a chance, he needed to take some reps at right (tackle) and see if he’d be able to do that to help guys who had only played left,” offensive line coach Glenn Elarbee said of Wright moving from left to right tackle. 

“Without skipping a beat, it wasn’t even like a blink of an eye. He was like, ‘Man, whatever helps us win and helps us be the best.’ I think that’s part of his maturation process. That’s part of him just getting a little bit older and more mature. He’s just a team guy. He talks in the meeting room. He’s taking notes and he’s fun to be around.”

Wright had a fantastic season in 2022. He was named the SEC Offensive lineman of the Week on two separate occasions and was named to the All-SEC First Team by both the media and the coaches. 

Wright has always been quick to credit Elarbee for helping him develop. No one is saying that Wright wouldn’t have ended up in the NFL regardless, but he was clearly a better player under Elarbee than he was in the first two years of his career.

Some of that is simply a result of natural growth and maturation, but Wright has always maintained that he had a special bond with Elarbee and has often talked about how their relationship benefitted him as a player.

He had the opportunity to return for one more season, but it became pretty apparent during the course of 2022 that Wright’s play had punched his ticket to being an early round NFL selection.

Tonight’s selection is a dream come true for Wright, as he detailed to our Brent Hubbs five years ago when Volquest made a road trip to Huntington, W.V. to do a feature on the then five-star high school prospect.

“I want to be in the league (the NFL), but that’s not my ultimate goal,” Wright said at the time. “The ultimate goal is just helping people. I feel like that should be everyone’s goal,” Wright said.

“I try to do what I can. I’m not Superman or anything. I just try to do what I can. Like in football, a lot of guys on my team haven’t gotten the attention like I have, so I didn’t want to commit early and have the attention go away from my team.”

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