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The Bears filled an important need and invested in protection for Justin Fields, drafting Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright with the No. 10 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Wright projects as an immediate starter at right tackle for Chicago, who experienced struggles at the position over the course of the 2022 season. The first-team All-SEC offensive lineman seemed to be the pick for them even if they stayed put at No. 9, but after moving back a spot and acquiring a 2024 fourth-round pick from the Eagles, they added some additional capital and added a potential building block for their offense.
Film studies galore have already been done on some of the Bears’ rookies, both by me and many other content creators in this online Chicago football-sphere. However, with the increasing presence data is playing in how NFL teams select players, I figured I’d take a look at what some of the advanced analytics say about both Wright and the rest of the Bears’ 2023 draft class.
Relative Athletic Score
Wright finished an RAS of 9.68, giving him the third-highest score of any offensive tackle in the 2023 NFL Draft. He trailed just BYU’s Blake Freeland and Northern Michigan’s Jake Witt, who finished with grades of 9.83 and 9.80, respectively. Wright was the second-best performing tackle of all Combine invites, as well as the fourth-highest total offensive lineman of everyone invited down in Indianapolis.
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When you factor in Wright’s rare speed for his size — with all of his speed numbers coming above 90th percentage and his weight being at 92nd percentage — it’s no surprise he tested so highly. Though his arm length is just decent for the offensive tackle position, it more than passes the league standard minimum of 33 inches.
Advanced analytics
Perusing SIS DataHub’s advanced analytics database inspired me to start this series, and I was quickly able to find out that Wright was one of the most efficient offensive tackles in college football in 2022.
#Bears OT Darnell Wright was a top tackle in CFB based off analytics:
— Jacob Infante (@jacobinfante24) May 3, 2023
• 0.7% blown blocks (T-3rd)
• 1.3% BB in pass protection (T-18th)
• ZERO BB in the run game
• 0.056 Points Earned/snap (2nd)
• 0.026 Points Above Average/snap (1st)
• Only one hold on 844 snaps
Stud.
Here’s how he fared against the 10 top players selected as offensive tackles in the 2023 NFL Draft:
2023 NFL Draft Top 10 OTs
| Year | Player | Team | Pos | Snaps | Points Earned | PE Per Snap | Points Above Avg | PAA Per Snap | Snaps | Points Earned | Points Above Avg | Snaps | Points Earned | Points Above Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Team | Pos | Snaps | Points Earned | PE Per Snap | Points Above Avg | PAA Per Snap | Snaps | Points Earned | Points Above Avg | Snaps | Points Earned | Points Above Avg |
| 2022 | Darnell Wright | Tennessee | T | 844 | 47.63 | 0.056 | 21.98 | 0.026 | 457 | 20.42 | 8.37 | 387 | 27.22 | 13.61 |
| 2022 | Broderick Jones | Georgia | T | 891 | 39.82 | 0.045 | 11.92 | 0.013 | 440 | 18.56 | 6.86 | 451 | 21.26 | 5.06 |
| 2022 | Anton Harrison | Oklahoma | T | 838 | 37.55 | 0.045 | 14.23 | 0.017 | 408 | 15.95 | 6.4 | 430 | 21.61 | 7.83 |
| 2022 | Paris Johnson Jr. | Ohio State | T | 789 | 37.42 | 0.047 | 11.43 | 0.014 | 421 | 16.73 | 4.58 | 368 | 20.69 | 6.85 |
| 2022 | Dawand Jones | Ohio State | T | 725 | 36.39 | 0.05 | 12.22 | 0.017 | 391 | 20.23 | 8.81 | 334 | 16.16 | 3.41 |
| 2022 | Blake Freeland | BYU | T | 801 | 34.76 | 0.043 | 7.79 | 0.01 | 425 | 17.91 | 5.72 | 376 | 16.86 | 2.07 |
| 2022 | Peter Skoronski | Northwestern | T | 854 | 30.13 | 0.035 | 5.06 | 0.006 | 459 | 17.27 | 5.43 | 395 | 12.86 | -0.37 |
| 2022 | Nick Saldiveri | Old Dominion | T | 656 | 27.74 | 0.042 | 5.69 | 0.009 | 430 | 18.52 | 5.57 | 226 | 9.22 | 0.12 |
| 2022 | Tyler Steen | Alabama | T | 801 | 25.3 | 0.032 | 0.38 | 0 | 466 | 12.92 | 0.32 | 335 | 12.38 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | Wanya Morris | Oklahoma | T | 560 | 20.36 | 0.036 | 4.75 | 0.008 | 280 | 10.7 | 4.15 | 280 | 9.67 | 0.6 |
From a pure advanced analytics perspective, Wright was the top offensive tackle in the 2023 draft.
Though one website’s data is far from the end-all, be-all to determine how a player performed in a single season, it does provide an in-depth, quantifiable look. Given his 2022 performance in a powerhouse college football conference and his athletic profile, the future looks very bright for Wright, both right out of the gate and in Chicago’s future.
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