How Ryan Poles became convinced Darnell Wright was the draft pick for the Chicago Bears

Poles feels just as good about what he’s seen on tape from Wright, who appeared in 47 games with 42 starts over four seasons at Tennessee, where he did not allow a sack in his final 19 contests.

“Big, athletic guy,” Poles said. “Physical. The one thing that stands out with him is he’s a tone-setter. He plays with an edge to him, which we love and want more of. He’s definitely going to add that to our front.”

Asked to expand on Wright being a tone-setter, Poles said: “He’s a nasty dude who when you watch the tape and are like, ‘all right, we’ve got to play the Bears next week,’ you go, ‘OK, this is going to be a long day.'”

Wright also boasts positional versatility; at Tennessee he started 27 games at right tackle, two at right guard and 13 at left tackle. He opened all 13 contests at left tackle in 2021 and all 13 at right tackle in 2022.

Poles isn’t sure which tackle position Wright will play with the Bears.

“We talked about this last year: how can you put the best five together?” Poles said. “If that’s right tackle, it’s right tackle. Today, it’s hard to just put him at one spot and say, ‘hey, you earned your job.’ He’s got to come in and earn it like everybody else.”

Wright also made a positive impression at the Senior Bowl, playing on the American Team that was coached by Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.

“He loves him,” Poles said of Getsy. “When you’re up close to him, you can feel the power, you can feel the size, the anchor.

“When you’re looking at offensive linemen, you want clean hands. He’s got some technique to work on—all of them do—but the one thing that I look for is if you miss with your hands and your technique’s a little bit off on a certain play, [do you] still have the ability to anchor up? If we can clean those little details up—hand usage, angles, things like that, pad level—we think the sky’s the limit for him.”