Inside The Huskies

Rosengarten Shows Off Top O-Lineman Speed at NFL Combine

The Husky offensive tackle could have moved up several draft spots with his showing.

Dan Raley

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The University of Washington football team, according to the various All-America rankings, didn't have the best offensive tackle in the country last season.

Yet the Huskies, as demonstrated by Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten's performances at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, probably had the best pair of tackles found anywhere across the college landscape.

The 6-foot-5, 308-pound Rosengarten, slightly shorter and heavier than listed at the UW, ran the 40-yard dash in 4.92 seconds, which was the fastest for any offensive lineman participating in the combine and left everyone talking excitedly about it. That's Xavier Worthy territory for linemen. 

Then there was the 6-foot-3 3/4, 317-pound Fautanu so nimble as he glided through the change-of-direction wave drill, moving more like some sort of tight end.  

The combine analysts noted how it previously was thought that Fautanu would have to play offensive guard as an NFL player, but his athletic performance this weekend likely cemented his prospects as a pro tackle.

Fautanu is a first-rounder waiting to happen. It's just how high will he go? The early projections had him getting drafted anywhere among selections No. 16 to 19, which would have sent him to the Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals or Los Angeles Rams, but his impressive combine performance might have bumped him even higher.

Rosengarten entered the combine as a likely second-day draft pick, going among the first 75 players. With his speed and agility opening a lot of eyes in Indianapolis, he could have improved his draft standing by several slots. One analyst even suggested Rosengarten could have made himself a surprise late first-rounder. Second round seems more like it.

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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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