NFL Mock Draft Likes Husky OT Jaxson Kirkland Near the Top

Pro Football Focus jumps the UW lineman to the upper half of its projections.

Dan Raley | May 8, 2021

Jaxson Kirkland, someone said, lives in Kirkland.

Yes, he has a town named after him. No, really.

Next April, the University of Washington senior offensive tackle will be drafted by The Washington Football Team, according to a mock draft compiled by Pro Football Focus.

With the 12th overall pick.

That, Jaxson will tell you, is worth a lot of Jacksons.

The legacy Husky player returned to the UW to become a first-rounder after hearing he would go lower than that in last month's draft.

It appears to be a very wise decision.

It's going to happen.

Last week, Yahoo became the first media entity to christen Kirkland as a No. 1 draftee, projecting the 6-foot-7, 310-pounder to go to the Buffalo Bills with the 29th pick in the 2022 talent grab in its mock draft.

Now it's PFF's turn to sing the praises of the big Husky, moving him up 17 slots in its projected draft order to No. 12, with this reasoning:

"In three years as a starter, Kirkland has seen his pass-blocking grade go from 77.1 to 79.0 to 86.6. He allowed all of two pressures on 124 pass-blocking snaps in 2020."

Who said the UW offensive line wasn't dominant?

If Kirkland goes in this spot, he'll become the second-highest drafted Husky offensive lineman behind only offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy, who went ninth overall to the Atlanta Falcons in 1993.

Kirkland wasn't the only Husky singled out by PPF either. It had junior cornerback Trent McDuffie going to the Minnesota Vikings with the 16th overall pick.

A returning first-team All-Pac-12 selection, Jaxson Kirkland is the son of Dean Kirkland, a Husky offensive guard in 1990 who was a first-team All-Pac-10 pick. Dean, however, had to wait until the 11th round to get drafted by the Buffalo Bills.

Did somebody say bills?

If all goes well with next year's draft, Jaxson Kirkland will be picking up all of them.

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Published May 8, 2021

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.