2. Darnell Wright was elite last season, and got better every year
Darnell Wright gets a lot of praise for his performance against Will Anderson last season. However, it went beyond that, he was downright excellent last season. For his career, he allowed 10 sacks, and seven of those came in his first two seasons.. He allowed 55 pressures, and 30 of them came in those first two seasons, per PFF.
In 2021, at left tackle, he allowed 3 sacks and 17 pressures. Last season, that dropped to 8 pressures, and not a single sack. Even more impressive, he went from 10 penalties at left tackle to three. On true block sets, Darnell Wright was the second-highest-graded pass blocker behind Peter Skoronski. When you realize that the Chicago Bears probably had Skoronski as a guard, then you could make the case that Wright was the highest graded pass blocker last season.
So, it was not just a game against Will Anderson. He was ascending as a sophomore, he changed to left tackle, and it did not go well, but back at right tackle he proved that he should go top ten.
From his great season, he was great at the Senior Bowl, and had a big time week in front of the Chicago Bears coachig staff and front office. Then, he finished it up at the NFL Combine. At some point you have to admit that Darnell Wright checked all of the boxes for the team. It makes sense that they would take the ascneding right tackle.