Daniel Jeremiah: Tennessee RB Jaylen Wright brings 'big-time juice' to the NFL Draft
Jaylen Wright will bring speed and explosiveness in the NFL, according to NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah. An NFL franchise can never have enough of either, leaving plenty of options for Wright heading into next week’s NFL Draft in Detroit.
“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.Â
“When I see guys with big-time juice like that, that’s the first team that jumps into my mind.”Â
As for a projection on where Wright will be picked, Jeremiah aimed for Day 2, projecting Wright to hear his name called next Friday night.
“I think he’ll go in the third round,” Jeremiah said, “would be my guess of where he ends up going.”
Jeremiah in February listed Wright as one of his top running backs in the NFL Draft.
“(He’s) just real springy and juicy,” Jeremiah said at the time, “stop-start quickness, home run hitter, finishes runs. He can get skinny though the hole. Really, really quick feet. He is 210 pounds, so he has a little bit of size to him. Enough size to him. He is probably the fastest, the most explosive of all these guys.”Â
Where ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and Field Yates project Jaylen Wright to be drafted
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 board in the ESPN mock draft, after Texas RB Jonathon Brooks was taken at No. 56 overall by the Dallas Cowboys.Â
Florida State running back Trey Benson went No. 85 overall to the Cleveland Browns, USC’s MarShawn Lloyd went No. 92 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Michigan’s Blake Corumwent No. 97 overall to the Cincinnati Bengals.Â
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.Â
Jaylen Wright last season: 137 carried, 1,013 yards, 7.4 yards per carry
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.Â
Wright in November became the 19th running back in Tennessee football program history to go over 1,000 yards in a season. He reached the 1,000-yard mark in 22 fewer carries than any other Tennessee running back before him.
His 7.4 yards per carry is also the highest among the 1,000-yard back, just above Charlie Garner’s 7.3-yard average in 1993 (159 attempts, 1,161 yards) and well north of the next highest, James Stewart’s 6.0 yards per carry in 1994 (170 attempts, 1,028 yards).
