The Chicago Bears have a new offensive tackle after selecting Tennessee’s Darnell Wright with the No. 10 pick in the first round of the NFL draft Thursday night in Kansas City, Mo.
Before the Bears took Wright, general manager Ryan Poles traded back one spot with the Philadelphia Eagles, who selected Georgia defensive tackle Jalen Carter at No. 9. The Bears gained a 2024 fourth-round pick in the trade.
The Bears needed an offensive tackle to play opposite Braxton Jones, who started every game at left tackle in his rookie season in 2022. Quarterback Justin Fields was sacked 55 times last season, and part of building a roster that will help Fields elevate his game is shoring up the protection for him.
In the 6-foot-5, 333-pound Wright, they have a player who has prototypical size and an aggressive style. He started 42 games over four seasons at Tennessee and was a first-team All-SEC selection in 2022. Some draft analysts believe he is a plug-and-play starter at right tackle.
NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger called Wright “a mauler.”Watch him against the elite players in college football and watch him eliminate them and shut them out,” Baldinger said. “Then you just watch how he moves bodies. His power is real. His base is good. Everybody needs to be coached in this business. It’s a different game in the NFL than it is in college. But there’s an awful lot to like about his size, about his movement, about his power, about his mentality, about his experience.”
The Bears picked Wright over other highly rated offensive tackles — Northwestern’s Peter Skoronski and Georgia’s Broderick Jones. The Arizona Cardinals picked Ohio State’s Paris Johnson Jr. at No. 6.
Fifteen months into rebuilding the Bears roster, Poles entered this draft with multiple major roster needs.
The Bears also need help at edge rusher after totaling a league-low 20 sacks in 2022. And they need a three-technique defensive tackle, a key position in coach Matt Eberflus’ defense.
Carter might have fit that role and was a popular topic of draft speculation surrounding the Bears.
Carter was ranked by many as one of the top defensive prospects in this draft, but character concerns caused him to drop. Last month, Carter pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and racing in a car crash that killed a Georgia teammate and staffer. Carter was not driving the car that crashed.
At his pro day, Carter also had gained weight and struggled to make it through his drills, calling into question his preparedness.
Poles made clear last month that the Bears would do their due diligence to make sure they were comfortable with Carter. He also said he would talk with Chairman George McCaskey and President Kevin Warren about making such a pick. The Bears met with Carter at the NFL combine, went to his pro day and then hosted him at Halas Hall for a visit.
Now the Bears will look to fill out their defensive holes Friday and Saturday.
The Bears have three Day 2 picks —Nos. 53 and 61 in the second round and No. 64 in the third round, but there is a 43-pick gap between their pick Thursday night and their first second-round pick. Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham said Tuesday that the team would regroup after the first round to discuss whether they wanted to move up in the second round to go after a higher-rated crop of players.
The Bears started down the road to this draft on Jan. 8, 2023, when they lost their franchise-record 14th game of the season to the Minnesota Vikings. When the Houston Texans beat the Indianapolis Colts in their season finale the same afternoon, that gave the Bears the No. 1 draft pick.
Poles spent more than two months determining what to do with that pick. One of the first steps was determining if Fields would remain the Bears starting quarterback, meaning Poles would not select one of a quartet of highly ranked prospects — Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Kentucky’s Will Levis and Florida’s Anthony Richardson.
Instead, Poles turned his attention to fielding trade offers from other general managers and ultimately landed a deal with the Carolina Panthers that gave the Bears the Nos. 9 and 61 picks this year, a 2024 first-rounder, a 2025 second-rounder and wide receiver DJ Moore.
The Panthers used the No. 1 pick to take Young, one of three quarterbacks taken before the Bears picked at No 10.
Young, the Heisman Trophy winner in 2021, threw for 8,200 yards and 79 touchdowns with 12 interceptions over the last two seasons for Alabama. The biggest question with Young, who has elite-level processing skills and great instincts and poise, is whether his size — 5-foot-10 and 204 pounds — will affect his ability to have success and hold up at the NFL level.
The Texans took Stroud at No. 2 and then traded up with the Arizona Cardinals to take Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. at No. 3. The Colts picked Richardson at No. 4.
Illinois cornerback Devon Witherspoon became the first Illini player selected in the first round since 2012 when the Seattle Seahawks picked him at No. 5. Witherspoon is the first top-five pick from Illinois since Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice went second and third in 1996.
()