It hasn’t taken much time at all for the New Orleans Saints’ fourth-round offensive lineman to begin drawing attention. From his on-field tenacity to his off-field presence, offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright is already impressing his coaching staff.
During mandatory minicamp, LouisianaSports.Net caught up with Saints run game coordinator T.J. Paganetti. Along with discussing the team’s new pass-catchers and how they impact the offense’s direction moving forward, Paganetti also gave a glowing review of Wright and the impression he’s made so far.
For the coach, it didn’t take long for Wright to jump out in the evaluation process. In fact, as the draft season began in Mobile, Ala., the former Auburn guard had already evoked a strong reaction.
“In my opinion, he stood out at the Senior Bowl more than anybody else,” Paganetti said. ”That was in passing off games and the protection drills, which is sometimes really the defensive drill, and then in the run game, I thought he was phenomenal. He took good angles, matched up to his film at Auburn, where a lot of times he was in a position where, we call it ‘displacement,’ where you’re running some sort of an inside concept or a gap scheme coming to your outside, and you have an inside G-technique on you, that’s the hardest block in football. It’s very, very difficult for a guard to block down on that type of guy and get that guy to move, and Jeremiah was able to move those guys consistently. So as soon as you see that, you’re like, ‘Ah, this guy’s got something.’”
A G-technique defender is usually lined up over the inside shoulder of the opposing guard, making it challenging to win the angle on certain blocking angles in the run game. Apparently, that’s been a little less of an issue for Wright than it typically is for guards his size.
At 6-foot-5 and 331 pounds, it’s no mystery that Wright is a strong player, but his movement ability is another part of his game that helped him stand out. His body control and ability to win leverage have put him in some advantageous positions in the past. Now, just continuing to hone in those skills will be a key part of his development.
Wright said during his introductory video call with the New Orleans media that he is comfortable in the run game, but has some work to do as a pass blocker. It’s a level of self-awareness that will aid him in his progress. He is, after all, a converted defensive lineman.
His ability to make the transition to the offensive side of the ball is a testament to another attention-grabbing trait that Wright possesses: his high football IQ. But don’t let the smarts fool you, as Paganetti highlights. Wright is a fierce competitor first and foremost.
“Across the board, a very highly intelligent guy from a playbook standpoint, and X’s and O’s, and also socially intelligent,” Paganetti said. “Even though he’s got kind of that slow-talking Selma, Ala. accent, he also is nasty as f***. He has a switch and he can turn it on, just like he did in the Senior Bowl when he’s on the field. That was one of the things that I really, really liked about him, and it’s carried over here, you can see it. So I’m ecstatic we got that guy.”
