Ryan Poles Gives Contract Extension Update on Darnell Wright

Darnell Wright was drafted by the Chicago Bears 10th overall back in the 2023 NFL draft and has since been a key part of this offense. Being able to land a franchise tackle is tough to do, but it seems as if Chicago was able to accomplish that task.

Although Wright has yet to make a Pro Bowl, he was on the All-Pro second team in 2025. On top of that, Wright has been extremely consistent, making 16 starts in 2024 and 2025 after he started 17 games as a rookie.

On Pro Football Reference, Wright has had strong Approximate Value marks as well. As a rookie, Wright had an AV of eight, which dropped down slightly to six in year two. Most recently, Wright posted the best AV mark of his career at 11.

Not only that, but the PFF numbers for Wright are very impressive. In 2025, Wright had an overall PFF grade of 81.4, a 74.3 pass blocking grade, and an 85.6 run blocking grade.

To put all of that into context, Wright ranked 14th among 89 tackles for his PFF grade of 81.4. Wright's pass blocking grade was 29th in the NFL, but among all tackles his run blocking grade was 6th. Across the board, Wright has clearly proven he’s in that top-tier of tackles right now.

Outside of just these grades, Wright had 12 penalties, which isn’t great, ranking 82nd among the 89 tackles, but only allowed three sacks, which ranked 41st.

With that context, Bearsszn on X posted that, "GM Ryan Poles says he wants to work out a contract extension with Darnell Wright and keep him a Bear long term:

'There's a window to get a deal done. At some point, we have to go play football. So we will figure that out. Darnell is a guy we want here for the long term.' via
@Zack_Pearson"

Darnell Wright Current Contract

The Bears don’t have to worry about Wright becoming a free agent just yet, as he hits the market in 2028. At the same time, that’s not too far away, and Wright is still playing on his rookie deal.

According to Spotrac, the calculated market value for Wright is a three-year deal for $63,153,045, which comes out to an average of $21,051,015.

At the same time, offensive tackle is an extremely important position and even more so when you’re trying to make sure Caleb Williams is able to continue developing into the star many hope he can become.

For Chicago, it’s evident that they value what Wright has done over his first three seasons and want to keep him around for years to come.