Inside The Huskies

Is Joe Tryon's Draft Assessment Ready to Explode? This Guy Thinks So

The former UW edge rusher might be the highest drafted Husky this month.

Dan Raley

Joe Tryon shrunk an inch and dropped 11 pounds since he began letting NFL talent scouts get a close-up look at him, which is often the case because college programs tend to inflate their guys just a tad to give them an edge.

With an inch here and a couple pounds there, they make their guys look and feel bigger than they are and try to get in the heads of the opposition.

However, Tryon's draft stock keeps rising. 

This is no illusion.

In fact, the former University of Washington edge rusher just might find his NFL assessment about to take a hefty jump, if not explode, now that the nationwide Pro Day has come and gone.

Not one to regularly beat his own drum — remember, he doesn't care all that much whether he's a first-rounder or not — the now  6-foot-4, 251-pound Tryon in ever so subtle fashion let everyone know how fast his 40-yard dash time went this week at Dempsey Center.

Ah, 4.5 seconds.

Tryon was a bit faster than some of those well-thought-of cornerbacks he played with and who are now getting their own NFL draft inspection.

Which is why draft analysts like Emory Hunt, a former Louisiana-Lafayette running back turned expert college football prognosticator all of sudden is talking up the former Husky from Renton, Washington.

"When people describe edge rushers, when they talk about what they want, they want somebody long, somebody athletic, somebody that has twitch, somebody that is good at both ends of defense and they want somebody who has upside," Hunt told Big Blue View, which covers the New York Giants. "Well damn, that sounds like Joe Tryon. Judging by how he finished 2019, he plays the game a lot like Montez Sweat."

That's Montez Sweat, as in two-year Washington Football Team starter, the 6-foot-6, 262-pound guy who ran a 4.41 combine 40, which was the fastest ever recorded for a defensive lineman. 

Tryon currrently turns up in mock drafts as a low first-rounder or high second-rounder, usually trailing former UW defensive tackle Levi Onwuzurike in where they'll end up.

Hunt, who's no follow-the-pack analyst, thinks people are just now catching on to Tryon, who has muscled up while shedding those 11 pounds and has a track record that should  

"Had Tryon played [in 2020], everyone would be talking about him and putting him in their first round," the analyst said. 

Hunt won't be surprised to see Tryon's Pro Day performance create a groundswell of interest in him and send him up the charts some. He called it a herd mentality that happens every year.

"When he tests through the room, next thing you know Daniel Jeremiah [of NFL Networks] will tweet out, 'Oh, wow, Tryon tested really well and he should be talked about int he first round,' " Hunt said. "All of the lemmings of draft Twitter will start talking about that as well. And next week, you'll see Tryon jump into everyone's first round mock draft."

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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