INDIANAPOLIS — It’s not always easy to get anything of import from the player podium sessions at a scouting combine. The 15-minute pressers are generally taken up halfway with various reporters asking, “Did you meet with [Team X],” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” “Did you meet with [Team X]?” and finally, “Did you meet with [Team X]?”
Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright took care of that during his Saturday morning podium session by pulling out his phone and running down the names of about three-quarters of the NFL.
Darnell Wright had to pull out his phone for all the team visits. Pretty much everyone. pic.twitter.com/YkO31LEuez
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) March 4, 2023
With that out of the way, it was time to talk about Wright’s 2022 season reps against two of the best edge-rushers in this draft class — Alabama’s Will Anderson Jr., and LSU’s BJ Ojulari. Anderson is a consensus top-five prospect, and Ojulari might sneak into the first round, but neither man did much against Wright. In back-to-back games against LSU and Alabama, Wright allowed a total of no sacks, no quarterback hits, and one quarterback hurry on 81 pass-protection snaps. And at 6-foot-5 and 342 pounds, you know that Wright can get it done in the run game, as well.
But this was about how Wright protected quarterback Hendon Hooker in those two games. He did so to the point where Anderson, in his own podium session this week, said that Wright was the best offensive tackle he faced.
“My sophomore year to my junior year, he had gotten way better,” Anderson said of Wright. “Very athletic, can bend, [and] can re-trace with his steps. If he gets off balance, [he] can sit down on power[-rushes], so it was really exciting going against him this year. He was really great.”
Wright’s game against Anderson was one of the primary series of moments in the SEC last season, because Anderson had just two pressures in that Tennessee game, and he had to get as far away from Wright as possible to get either one of them. When it was mano a mano, Anderson found himself shut out.
I asked Wright how he decided to deal with Anderson, and from there, it’s time to go to the tape.