PUEBLO, Colo.  – It is still remarkable that the Nashville Stampede will have the first pick of the 2023 PBR Team Series Draft, but the PBR determined during the inaugural PBR Team Series that the 2023 draft order would be based upon the results of the regular season and not following the 2022 PBR Team Series Championship.

Therefore, the 7-20-1 Nashville Stampede were awarded the No. 1 pick in the draft before they became the Cinderella 2022 PBR Team Series Champions.

Now coach Justin McBride and company will have the quite the line to use during their recruiting pitch: ‘Hey [INSERT RIDER], how do you feel about joining the reigning champs?’

McBride, though, already knows who he would love to select with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 PBR Team Series Draft if he can make it happen.

The 43-year-old head coach likes the idea of newly minted 2022 PRCA All-Around World Champion and 2022 PRCA Bull Riding Champion Stetson Wright to be competing as a member of the Nashville Stampede next year.

“I have already been making calls about that first round draft pick,” McBride said as the confetti was still falling inside T-Mobile Arena last month. “The first guy we are going after and trying to get on our team one-hundred, thousand percent is Stetson Wright. We have a lot of scheduling things to look at and we have to talk to him and his family and make sure it is the best thing for Stetson Wright, but he is a big target.

“Stetson is a gamer. He is a great guy.”

Of course, that will only be possible if Wright eventually decides to declare for the draft this year.

McBride knows that is the key to having the No. 1 overall selection. He can talk to any bull rider who did not declare for last year’s inaugural PBR Team Series Draft, make a recruiting push and have them declare. 

In ways, McBride will be doing his best Nick Saban impression these next few months as he tries to find his next superstar to add alongside 2018 World Champion Kaique Pacheco, three-time World Champion Silvano Alves, Dener Barbosa and the rest of the Stampede’s championship roster.

“It is a recruiting trip because it is guarantee,” McBride said. “It is not now, ‘Oh we would like to have you on our team, but we don’t know if he will fall there in the draft to us.’ It was kind of like Austin having that No. 1 pick and getting Leme. They have a 100% chance that they’re going to get that guy, so that’s the way we can be with this pick. Not only do we get that No. 1 pick, but we get Dener Barbosa back.” 

Snagging Wright would be a monstrous addition for Nashville.

Wright is coming off a historic performance at the 2022 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, presented by Teton Ridge, that helped him set the PRCA single-season earnings record ($927,940), all-around single-season record ($758,829) and bull riding single-season record ($592,144).

The Milford, Utah, cowboy has seven career World Championships – four in all-around (2019-22); two in bulls (2020 and 2022) and one in saddle bronc riding (2021).

At the 2022 NFR, Wright went 8-for-10 to take the event average title in the bull riding and won three rounds inside the Thomas & Mack Center. Wright’s best outing came in Round 4 when he rode Belly Dump for 92 points.

Wright also placed in 15 out of the combined 20 rounds he competed in saddle bronc riding (seven) and bull riding (eight) at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“This year has been the best and the hardest year I have had in the PRCA,” Wright told ProRodeo.com "It started off really hot, moving to No. 1 in the world in broncs and bulls. And it kind of didn't slow down from that point on. But I had a few injuries where I had to have surgery, sit out and miss some rodeos. When you are missing stuff like that, you don't feel like you are doing your best. I had to learn a lot of patience. I had to trust everything my mom and dad said when I needed to sit out. I learned that if you wait and get healthy, you will do a lot better.

“I feel like I have shocked myself a lot this year. It came with patience and trusting that everything would be all right. That was what this year was about … I love breaking my own records because that means I did better than I did the year before. That's my goal to be better. I feel like what I have done this year, I feel like I can do even better if I stay healthy and don't miss anything. I really feel like I can do better and break more records."

Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media