Welp. Mel Kiper is at it again and this time he is including the Chicago Bears in his latest hot take mock draft. Yes, you heard me correctly. I have not been a fan of Mel Kiper from a draft analyst standpoint for years. He is a great television persona, sure. But, he has not been accurate for years when it comes to predicting which players go where and to what teams.
His last mock draft had Adetomiwa Adebawore as the 15th player off the board. Why? Because he probably fell in love with the Pro Day workout measurements. It's also realistic that he heard teams highly touting Adebawore after his Pro Day and with scouts being available to Kiper, he's moving guys like Adebawore and others up his draft board. The problem here isn't necessarily the player, but to me, it's the location.
Why would the Chicago Bears take Darnell Wright at nine?
In his most recent mock draft, Mel Kiper has the Chicago Bears selecting Darnell Wright at nine overall. One, I think that's just an awful pick because I don't have him ranked ahead of guys like Peter Skoronski, Paris Johnson, Jr. or Broderick Jones. However, even if we ignore my rankings of the offensive tackles/linemen, putting a player like Darnell Wright in Chicago goes against everything we have seen to date from Ryan Poles and his staff.
Darnell Wright is 6'6" and 335 pounds. He has a solid arm length of 33-3/4", but that does not compare to the length of both Paris Johnson and Broderick Jones who are both over 34". The other glaring difference here is his weight. 335 pounds is not the body type that we see Ryan Poles target. He prefers his offensive linemen to be lean, athletic, and violent. He wants his linemen to be able to move from one level to the next with ease. That is not what I see when watching Darnell Wright.
I saw Tennessee trying to pull him at times and even though the play worked, watching him move down the line was like watching Nathan Peterman throw a football -- not great. It wasn't awful and he still grades out as a first-rounder, but he's more like a late first-rounder. Where Wright succeeds most is the passing game. He has a great anchor and solid bend. However, his run-blocking is limited to more of a power gap scheme. I don't see him consistently winning at the NFL level in an outside zone scheme like Luke Getsy and the Chicago Bears run.
I stand by my comments and we will see just how right or wrong I am once the first round is over, but I do not see why the Chicago Bears would ever be interested in taking Darnell Wright at nine over players who better fit their offense like Johnson, Skoronski and Jones.