Inside The Huskies

Otton Has His Best Day With Bucs

The former Husky tight end appears to be connecting with Tom Brady.

Dan Raley

Otton Has His Best Day With Bucs
Otton Has His Best Day With Bucs /
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It didn't take long at all for NFL fans and media members in Tampa, Florida, to begin raving about the talents of rookie tight end Cade Otton.

On Sunday, the former University of Washington standout had his best day with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the team's 10th preseason practice, impressing everyone by coming up with key plays and meshing with Tom Brady.

Above all, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Otton appears to be gaining the trust right away of the legendary quarterback after making an over-the-shoulder scoring catch and another on a goal-line play. 

Wearing No. 88, Otton caught three scoring passes overall in assorted drills coming from Brady and his back-up Blaine Gabbert, according to BucsGameday, which is part of the Sports Illustrated network.

"I feel great, just having a ton of fun." Otton said following practice. "Feeling better every single day, just going through the movements that you have to go through to play football at an NFL level. It's been good."

Otton has had to work himself back into football shape after suffering an ankle injury in a 35-31 loss to Arizona State that ended his final UW season with two games remaining. 

He subsequently had surgery and many observers thought this unfairly dropped him to the fourth round of the NFL draft, far lower than maybe he should have been.

Following Rob Gronkowski's retirement at tight end, the Bucs are trying to find another high-performance player at this position and Otton is a strong candidate. He's largely competing against a couple of veterans in returnee Cameron Brate and free-agent addition Kyle Rudolph for playing time. 

"Gotta earn it every day," Otton said of teaming up with the Bucs quarterbacks. "Gotta earn their trust, make plays and there's still some plays out there. But when the ball comes your way, you gotta build that trust."

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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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