Poles traded with the
Eagles, moving from No. 9 to No. 10, to take Tennessee offensive tackle Darnell Wright, a player whom Poles gained that all-important “conviction” on nearly four weeks earlier, during a Saturday workout in Knoxville, Tenn.
“It was a really good experience from start to finish,” Poles said Thursday night. “A guy that we were comfortable with as being the top tackle in the draft, so we’re pumped about that.”
It was the first time Poles took a trip with a position coach for a private workout. And it became “the final box we were able to check.”
As the Bears’ personnel and analytics staff ran mock draft simulations, they could see where Wright could go, and Poles felt pretty good that they’d be safe at No. 9, as well at No. 10, knowing the Eagles wanted Carter.
That trade only happens, though, if the Bears didn’t want Carter. And they preferred Wright instead of the best three-technique in the draft for a defense that thrives with a great three-technique.
Poles didn’t want to talk about Carter on Thursday night, choosing to focus on Wright. But the way he and head coach Matt Eberflus have described players they covet in the past provided enough hints that they’d have to feel really good about Carter to make that selection.
When asked specifically if character concerns took Carter out of play for the Bears, Poles responded, “I won’t comment specifically on him, but character’s always going to be important for us.”
Poles explained what set Wright apart from the other offensive linemen.
“The tone-setting, the nasty mentality that you look for,” he said. “That probably set him apart. I think the anchor was a big one. That’s critical. The combination of size and athleticism together was another part that made us feel really good about him.”
With the
Titans taking Skoronski one pick later, Poles might have thought Wright could have been an option for them, which is why he moved back only one spot.
“You want to be on your toes. I wasn’t comfortable,” he said. “I was looking at the numbers down to the last three picks and I’m like, ‘Ah.’ And then you’ve got teams behind you that you know are trying to come up because they liked him based on tracking, visits and workouts and all of those things. Yeah, you’re always nervous. I was nervous until we actually could pull the trigger.”
Wright played his college football in Tennessee and had a visit with the Titans in the pre-draft process. Poles got a 2024 fourth-round pick from the Eagles, more draft capital for the future, and got his top tackle.
“When you’re up close to him, you can feel the power, you can feel the size, the anchor when guys try to really press on him,” he said. “When you’re looking at offensive linemen, you want clean hands and 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 and you still have the ability to anchor up. Even when you’re wrong, you can win when you’re wrong. That just shows you what he’s got in his body.
“If we can clean those little details up — hand usage, angles, things like that, pad level — we think that the sky’s the limit for him.”
And, the scout added, Wright “destroyed Will Anderson.”
We learned that the Bears have coveted Wright for a long time. Poles called him a tone-setter with the nasty mentality they covet.
theathletic.com
