It’s hard to explain, even for Alex Wright, but something happened early for the young pass rusher in the Browns’ Week 15 win over the Bears last season.
Wright went against Bears right tackle Darnell Wright on a third-and-8 with 2:56 left in the opening quarter and pushed him back, making a move inside and strip-sacking Justin Fields. It forced a punt.
It might not be a particularly memorable play to Browns fans, but for Wright, it started a run of four consecutive games with a sack.
Prior to that stretch, Wright had one career sack.
During his rookie season, he had no sacks and wasn’t even credited with a quarterback hit while playing 542 defensive snaps. He could at least take solace that he led the team in passes batted down with five.
Wright, 23, listed at 6-foot-5 and 267 pounds with 34-inch arms, has the physical tools, he’s never doubted that. He’s never doubted his ability, either, but there’s just something about actually doing it, about finally breaking through and proving all that belief in yourself correct.
“I talked to Andrew (Berry) after the Texans game, he was just like, I’m proud of the way you evolved this whole season. I’m proud of the way you grew this whole season,” Wright said. “And I just told him, I don’t know what it was, but I just felt something.”
The Browns drafted Wright in the third round of the 2022 draft out of UAB, a raw prospect with the type of height and length they love in an edge rusher.
“We think he is a player who can really grow into the ideal big end for us and rush inside and out,” Berry said after the Browns selected Wright.
He slotted as the team’s No. 3 edge rusher his rookie season behind Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney and, according to data from Pro Football Focus, was on the field for the second-most pass rush snaps his rookie year behind Garrett. Still, his first year ended without answers about how he fit longterm in the Browns’ pass-rush plan.
“I wouldn’t say it was frustration,” Wright said about his rookie season. “I know it was uncertainty.”
He was overthinking, worrying about every step and every hand placement.
“It was just stuff to the point where I didn’t trust myself sometimes,” Wright said. “Sometimes I did in games, sometimes I didn’t. And that’s where that confidence started to die down a little bit.”
The situation was changing around Wright, too. The Browns traded for Za’Darius Smith and signed Ogbo Okoronkwo. They brought in defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, known for his ability to supercharge a pass rush.
Wright was now the fourth man in the edge rush group and, while he played less in his second season, he managed more production. Certainly a fair amount of credit goes to Schwartz and his penchant for attacking in waves and maximizing versatility. It wasn’t all Schwartz, though.
Wright also credits a change in mindset.
“What I did my second year was mentally just go, just take a deep breath,” he said. “My rookie year, I was frantic, I was panicking. I was this that and the third, but my second year it was just like, you do what got you here and you don’t worry about anything else and whatever we can do, we can just fix that after. At the end of day, you’ve got to look at it as you’ve got to stop me, not the other way around. So I started telling myself that every time I stepped down on the field and plays started happening.”
Wright has benefitted, too, from having Garrett around. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year has embraced his veteran status and taken young players, Wright in particular, under his wing. He works with them between practice reps and Wright said he went and worked out with Garrett in Dallas this offseason.
“Let’s face it, I’m not Myles Garrett, I get that,” Wright said, “but I can take what Myles can teach me and Myles, he’s never shied away from answering questions.”
Wright said learning from Garrett is something he never gets tired of doing.
“You are learning from a generational player,” he said. “I’m not going to say we’re two peas in a pod, but when you see him, you see me, especially out here (at practice) and sometimes even through walkthrough, I’m always beside him asking questions, just talking about football.”
One of the big things he’s picked up on is Garrett’s relentlessness.
“He doesn’t sugarcoat anything,” Wright said. “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this all the way through. We’re not going to take any shortcuts. We’re not going to just stop because you feel tired. No, we’ve got to go because it’s going to be like that on the field.”
Wright is getting pushed this year by another change the Browns made on their coaching staff this offseason, hiring Jacques Cesaire as their defensive line coach, Cesaire and Wright connected quickly.
“We ended up watching film for about two hours and the first thing he said to me, he was like, what type of person are you?” Wright said. “Are you a trash talker? Are you a silent killer? What are you? And I’m telling him what I am and he was like, it’s my job to bring that out of you times three,times 10.”
(Wright, for the record, said he’s not much of a trash talker.)
“Love him as a man. Great character, great leader in the room,” Cesaire said of Wright. “Hard, hard worker, rarely talks, doesn’t complain about anything. He just goes out and works. Wherever I put him, he has success. We put him inside, outside. I mean this guy, he’s another special talent that you got to utilize when he’s on the field.”
Wright certainly seems more comfortable now and you can count him among the Browns players who are eyeing double digit sacks in 2024, even if he’s a little less outspoken about it.
“I got a certain amount of sacks last year. I’m looking to double that and I’m not going to say, oh, I have a certain goal of sacks or this, that and the third,” Wright said. “It’s just like, no, I just want to do better than I did last year and just keep it that simple.”
Count Smith as someone who believes it’s possible.
“He’s doing a great job getting better each and every day,” Smith said. “I don’t know if y’all saw it last week also, but he’s staying after practice and doing extra things so I could see him hit that too with the double digit sacks.”
All Wright really needed was a little confidence, a little reminder that he had the ability to play in the NFL. He got it at the end of last season and is ready to carry it into this season.
“I didn’t know what it was, I didn’t know how it clicked, but I just felt something in my brain just be like, OK, this is what it takes to make plays,” Wright said, “and when you make plays, it’s like, OK, now I know how to make plays.
“Just stop worrying and just go.”
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