Everything You Want to Know about the Huskies' First-Round NFL Draft Possibilities

Rome Odunze, Michael Penix Jr. and Troy Fautanu are all poised to become very rich men.

Troy Fautanu (55), shown with Daniyel Ngata at the CFP title game, should be a first-round draft pick today. / Thomas Shea/USA TODAY Sports

Full disclosure, the University of Washington football team was supposed to hold its 11th spring practice on Thursday afternoon, which is today, beginning at 3:30 p.m., and have it go uninterrupted for two and a half hours.

The schedule remained firm on this until Monday, when someone finally realized what a serious faux pas this presented, that maybe 84 Husky football players suddenly might call in sick that afternoon, not to mention that all of the fans and media members who usually come out would stay away -- that once and for all new coach Jedd Fisch had let important details surrounding the program slip away from him.

C'mon Jedd, are you kidding: It's NFL Draft Thursday, with the 32 first-round picks unfolding and everyone connected to the UW football holding a vested interest in what takes place this year.

Well, the draft is finally here and, coming to his senses, Fisch held practice No. 11 on Wednesday, leaving everyone on his roster with the opportunity to gather together, probably inside Husky Stadium, in a team room theater setting, to watch a possible school-record-tying number of their former teammates selected in that all-important first round.

Wide receiver Rome Odunze, quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and offensive tackle Troy Fautanu, not necessarily in that order, each should become very rich men this evening.

The magic numbers keep changing for them and where they'll go, but the respected Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Network and NFL.com in his final mock draft has them 10, 13 and 14 -- with Odunze going to the New York Jets, Penix to the Las Vegas Raiders and Fautanu to the New Orleans Saints in that manner.

Peter Schrager of the same NFL outlets offers them up at 9, 13 and 22.-- Odunze to the Chicago Bears, Penix again to the Raiders and Fautanu to the Seattle Seahawks.

And one more: Pete Prisco of CBS Sport is set on them at 10, 11 and 24 -- Odunze again to the Jets, Penix to the Minnesota Vikings and Fautanu to the Dallas Cowboys.

Stubbornly to the end of these feverish draft prognostications, USA Today, the Bleacher Report and others fail to see Penix as a first-rounder, which seems highly unlikely to happen, according to the general consensus chatter.

Odunze could go as high as No. 6, according to Pro Football Focus, while Penix has been singled out as a possible sixth overall choice, too, by ESPN's Dan Graziano, which would mean either one of these guys could end up with the New York Giants. Each guy has plenty of personality to make it big in the Big Apple.

Should the Huskies walk away with three first-round picks, they would match their best draft showing ever in 2015 when almost a full decade ago defensive tackle Danny Shelton was picked No. 12 by the Cleveland Browns, cornerback Marcus Peters went to the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 18 and linebacker Shaq Thompson heard his named called out at No. 25 by the Carolina Panthers.

Thompson, who signed a 4-year, $54 million extension in 2019 to make him one of the league's highest-paid players, is still knocking heads with the Panthers, while Peters, who has seven career NFL pick-6s and eight touchdown returns overall, and Shelton, who has won a pair of Super Bowls in his career, currently are free agents.

For those who want to get technical, Peters was dismissed by the Chris Petersen coaching staff in the middle of the season and he didn't end well with the Huskies and was estranged from the program for the longest time, though he finally mended program fences a year ago and made a UW spring football appearance, welcomed back by Kalen DeBoer's staff.

The 2015 first-round Huskies were all defensive guys. The latest trio from Montlake headed for further fame and fortune are all offensive players, with Penix on the cusp of becoming just the second UW quarterback ever to be drafted in the first round, joining the now retired Jake Locker, who went to the Tennessee Titans with the No. 8 pick overall in 2011.

For those watching at home, Odunze will be the only one of the three Huskies attending the NFL Draft and walking out on the big stage in Detroit, with Penix and Fautanu preferring to celebrate their pro football entry moments with large gatherings of friends and family members in the Tampa, Florida, and Las Vegas areas, respectively.

Odunze traveled to Detroit on Tuesday, ironically sharing a flight with former USC quarterback Caleb Williams, the projected top pick, who let everyone know of this arrangement.

"Oh s---, yall, I just saw Rome Odunze on a flight to Detroit!! Big fan!" Williams posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Every the charmer, Odunze responded with, "I'm actually the pilot this morning. Don't worry, I'll get Caleb to Detroit safely!"

On Wednesday, Deion Sanders, the Colorado football coach, the No. 5 overall pick to the Atlanta Falcons in 1989 and the man forever known as "Prime," did some last-minute lobbying for Penix when he posted, "I can't stand the way the mainstream media and draft experts have looked over, looked by and looked past Michael Penix Jr. This is ridiculous. This young man had a great year and one average game vs. the No. 1 defense in college football. Someone stand up and tell the truth please."

Penix had his final last retort as well with his doubters, who can't get over the fact he had four season-ending injuries at Indiana before transferring to the UW, where he was healthy at all times and twice the nation's leading passer.

"So I have no problem taking all the MRI’s and X-rays you ask of me," the quarterback wrote on the Players Tribune on Tuesday. "Truth is, it’s an EKG that will tell you everything you need to know about me."

The NFL Draft will be shown on ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network, drawing almost as much attention as a presidential election, beginning at 5 p.m. PT. Considering that the first round typically lasts four hours, all the excitement involving the Husky threesome could be over by 7, or halfway through the picking process.

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