This Mock Draft Makes Up for Real-Time Husky Snub
On Thursday through Saturday, the University of Washington football team struck out all three days in providing an NFL draft pick.
On Monday, granted while everyone has slipped back into a mock mode, the Huskies cleared the bases.
Ryan Wilson of CBSSports.com dropped 32 names who might be first-rounders in the 2024 draft, with a big emphasis on might, and four of them came up UW players preparing for a last college hurrah this approaching season.
In order, this draft guru picked edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui as the 11th pick, supposedly going to the Seattle Seahawks; fellow edge rusher Bralen Trice at No. 21, taken by the Miami Dolphins; wide receiver Rome Odunze leaving the board at No. 29, headed to the Buffalo Bills; and last, but not Husky least, quarterback Michael Penix Jr., getting swept up at 31 by the San Francisco 49ers.
And ZTF thought everyone had forgot about him since 2020, when piled up 7 sacks in three amazing games of a short four played on a pandemic-restricted football schedule.
We checked out the CBS Sports author and he has no known connection to the Northwest. To the contrary, his bio said he was a North Carolina native who lives in New York.
So much for putting a home school spin on things here, with Wilson even suggesting this was just him dropping familiar names from the college landscape.
He chose potential draft picks in bunches, selecting the Husky foursome second only to Ohio State's five possible first-rounders, one of whom is a Northwest product, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka from Steilacoom, Washington, and forecast to go No. 9.
ZTF, after his 2020 heroics, was a popular mock draft name back then until tearing up his Achilles heel in the following spring practice. He's been battling to return to form ever since. CBS has just one edge rusher slotted higher than him in Florida State's Jared Verse at No. 7
In the minds of many, Trice could be the Husky who goes the highest, considering all of the attention he drew last season, which included earning Alamo Bowl defensive player of the game accolades. On this list, he's the third edge rusher taken behind Verse and ZTF.
Odunze was the last of these UW big names to declare he would play another football season, but only after learning he wasn't quite yet a first-round pick this time around. He should be among the gilded set when next April rolls around. Wilson has him as the fourth receiver on the board, behind Ohio State's Marvin Harrison Jr. at No. 2 and Egbuka seven spots behind his teammate, and Texas' Xavier Worthy at No. 15.
Finally, there's Penix with the next-to-last first-round pick and staying on the West Coast in this daydream. CBS has him as the fifth quarterback behind USC's Caleb Williams, the first overall pick in this mock; North Carolina's Drake Maye, who's at No. 4; Texas' Quinn Ewers, coming in at No. 16; and Oregon's Bo Nix, the 17th pick.
Penix, of course, won head-to-head duals last season with both Ewers and Nix.
Yet it's all mock stuff, coming 12 months before they do it all for real again. You can access Wilson's CBSSports.com mock draft right here for a draft guzzle with a Husky chaser.
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