Inside The Huskies

McDuffie Goes to Kansas City Chiefs With 21st Pick

The former Husky cornerback is now teammate for Patrick Mahomes.

Dan Raley

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Trent McDuffie, one of the few good things to came out of a disastrous University of Washington football season, added to his impeccable reputation by going to the Kansas City Chiefs with the 21st overall pick of the NFL draft on Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Even while the Huskies slumped to 4-8 and fired coach Jimmy Lake in-season, the 5-foot-11, 193-pound cornerback from Westminster, California, shrugged off the distractions and maintained a high level of play that ensured he would become a first-day draft pick.

McDuffie didn't permit a touchdown pass. He was named first-team All-Pac-12. He's the UW's 27th first-rounder in the history of the draft (see list below).

While others tried to question his height and reach, looking for anything to nitpick, McDuffie won over the assembled pro scouts with highlight footage that was virtually mistake-free and his pre-draft interviews that showed him to be an overly intelligent and highly persuasive football player.

Consider his NFL combine media interview, where he offered the following, “I keep telling all these teams: I want to play football, I’m a football player. You can put me at corner, you can put me at nickel, you can put me at free safety. I want to play special teams. I’m like, ‘Hey if you need somebody on offense, put me over there.’ I’m just trying to compete and be the best player I can for whatever team picks me.”

It was Kansas City, which seven years earlier chose another UW cornerback, Marcus Peters, with the 18th pick. Peters now plays for the Baltimore Ravens. McDuffie is the highest drafted Husky DB since Peters. 

The general consensus among the draft experts was McDuffie, who chose to stay close to home in Dana Point, California, and not attend the draft proceedings in Nevada, would be taken in the middle of the opening round, and he went just a little later than projected.

Joe Klatt of Fox Sports had him No. 13, Mel Kiper for ESPN slotted him 14th and Sports Illustrated's Kevin Hanson predicted he would be the 15th selection. McDuffie stands to receive a four-year deal projected around $13 million.

"Talk about a complete football player," Kiper said on ESPN's draft  broadcast.

McDuffie played three seasons for the Huskies, starting 26 of the 28 games in which he appeared. He finished with 94 career tackles, 10 pass break-ups, 3 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries and 2 interceptions.

The pro scouts gave him high marks for his open-field tackling ability as much as for his coverage skills, all done with 4.44-second speed in the 40-yard dash.

 

“I play like I’m a linebacker,” said McDuffie at the scouting combine. “I’m a defender. I can tackle, love to tackle. I love to be in the mix. I love to be in the box. I used to tell our coaches all the time, ‘Man, put me at safety. Let me just go run the alley. Let me take on these linemen.’

“I love to compete. At the end of the day, I want to win. That’s why I play football. To win games. That’s what I’m going to try to do in the NFL and help these organizations get to the Super Bowl.”

With Kansas City, he's on his way to somewhere memorable, now a teammate for quarterback Patrick Mahomes and playing for Chiefs coach Andy Reid in a football-crazy city.

UW No. 1 Draft Picks

1941 — Rudy Mucha, C, Cleveland Rams, No. 4

1941 — Dean McAdams, RB, Brooklyn Dodgers, No. 8

1952 — Hugh McElhenny, RB, San Francisco 49ers, No. 9

1967 — Dave Williams, WR, St. Louis Cardinals, No. 16

1978 — Blair Bush, C, Cincinnati Bengals, No. 16

1980 — Doug Martin, DT, Minnesota Vikings, No. 9

1981 — Curt Marsh, OL, Oakland Raiders, No. 23

1985 — Ron Holmes, DT, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, No. 8

1986 — Joe Kelly, LB, Cincinnati Bengals, No.11

1987 — Reggie Rogers, DL, Detroit Lions, No. 7

1990 — Bern Brostek, C, Los Angeles Rams, No. 23

1992 — Steve Emtman, DT, Indianapolis Colts, No. 1

1993 — Lincoln Kennedy, OT, Atlanta Falcons, No. 9

1995 — Napoleon Kaufman, RB, Los Angeles Raiders, No. 17

1995 — Mark Bruener, TE, Pittsburgh Steelers, No. 27

2002 — Jerramy Stevens, TE, Seattle Seahawks, No. 28

2004 — Reggie Williams, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars, No. 9

2011 — Jake Locker, QB, Tennessee Titans, No. 8

2013 — Desmond Trufant, CB, Atlanta Falcons, No. 22

2015 — Danny Shelton, DT, Cleveland Browns, No. 12

2015 — Marcus Peters, CB, Kansas City Chiefs, No. 18

2015 — Shaq Thompson, LB, Carolina Panthers, No. 25

2017 — John Ross III, WR, Cincinnati Bengals, No. 9

2018 — Vita Vea, DT, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, No. 12

2019 — Kaleb McGary, OT, Atlanta Falcons, No. 31

2021 — Joe Tryon, LB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, No. 32

2022 — Trent McDuffie, CB, Kansas City Chiefs, No. 21

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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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