Inside The Huskies

Mock Draft Shows UW Was Far Better Than 4-8 Team

USA TODAY pegs four Huskies to go in the top three rounds.

Dan Raley

The University of Washington football team finished 4-8, but it was so much better than that.

The Huskies, with a lowly eighth-best record among all Pac-12 entries, shared this same season-long misery with USC and Colorado and had a conference ledger that topped only Stanford (3-9) and Arizona (1-11).

No, the UW's end result didn't come close to matching the talent walking around in purple and gold uniforms.

USA TODAY's latest NFL mock draft, three rounds long, is further proof of how 2021 became such a wasteland of a football season for the UW, where a coaching change was necessary and Husky fan-base incredulity was understandable. 

Among the top 96 players singled out by this media group for pro football careers in its mock look, 11 hail from Pac-12 teams — four coming from Washington,  the most in the conference. 

USA TODAY forecasts that the UW's All-Pac-12 cornerback Trent McDuffie will go in the first round with the 28th pick to the Arizona Cardinals, which, if this happened, would mean he would share the same secondary with former Huskies safety Budda Baker and corner Byron Murphy.

Fellow UW and All-Pac-12 cornerback Kyler Gordon is predicted to go in the upper half of the second round with the 45th pick, to the Las Vegas Raiders, where he could team with ex-Husky corner Desmond Trufant.

UW offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland, a two-time All-Pac-12 choice, is slotted 48th in the second round by USA TODAY, ending up with the Cincinnati Bengals, where he could line up side by side with a former teammate in tight end Drew Sample.

Husky tight end Cade Otton, last year's All-Pac-12 selection at his position, is pegged for the end of the third round, going 93rd overall to the Tennessee Titans, where he would become teammates again with defensive back Elijah Molden.

Four UW selections in the first three rounds is two more than the next nearest teams in Oregon, with edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux (2nd overall) and cornerback Mykael Wright (70th), and USC, with wide receiver Drake London (27th) and linebacker Drake Jackson (43rd). 

Pac-12 schools with one selection each in this mock were Utah with linebacker Devin Lloyd (11th), UCLA offensive tackle Sean Rhyan (69th) and Washington State offensive tackle Abraham Lucas (81st).

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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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