Tennessee RB Jaylen Wright picked in the fourth round of the NFL Draft
Tennessee Football running back Jaylen Wright is off the board at the NFL Draft, selected by the Miami Dolphins with the 120th overall pick in the fourth round Saturday afternoon in Detroit. He’s the 11th Tennessee player to be selected in the NFL Draft during the Josh Heupel era.
Wright starred during his junior season with the Vols, carrying 137 times for 1,013 yards and had four rushing touchdowns while averaging 7.4 yards per carry. He became just the 19th Tennessee running back to go over 1,000 yards in a season and did it in fewer carries than any other back before him.
ESPN earlier this week ranked Wright as the No. 48 overall prospect in the NFL Draft, according to its ranking of the top 100 prospects.
The Jaylen Wright File
Over the last three seasons at Tennessee, Wright totaled 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.
Wright 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.
ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates last week projected Wright as a third-round pick in their three-round NFL mock draft. Wright was the second running back off the board in the ESPN mock draft, with only Texas running back Jonathon Brooks projected ahead of him.
‘So explosive and so dynamic … big-time juice’
Kiper in March listed Wright as one of his top risers coming out of the NFL Scouting Combine, writing that Wright could headline a running back group that “is a little underwhelming as a whole” and is without a clear No. 1 back in the group.
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah last week also projected Wright as a third-round pick.
“Jaylen Wright’s so explosive and so dynamic,” 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.”
