Inside The Huskies

Ravens Draft UW's Roger Rosengarten at End of Second Round

The offensive tackle became the Huskies's fifth player selected.

Dan Raley

Roger Rosengarten soaks in the CFP title game against Michigan.
Roger Rosengarten soaks in the CFP title game against Michigan. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Roger Rosengarten, in some ways, was the other University of Washington offensive tackle. The guy on the right side. Younger than left tackle Troy Fautanu. Playing in the shadow of that Husky teammate, who was the Pac-12's best offensive lineman.

Yet NFL teams were pleasantly surprised to find out how nimble and talented this 6-foot-5, 308-pound player from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was when they got to watch him up close at the Scouting Combine, Husky Pro Day and in individual workouts.

On Friday, the Baltimore Ravens had seen enough, claiming Rosengarten in the second round of the NFL Draft with the 62nd pick -- making him the fifth Husky selected, which meant a UW player was turning up for nearly every 10 names called out.

An All-Pac-12 honorable-mention choice, and probably deserving of much more than that, Rosengarten started all 28 games of the Kalen DeBoer coaching era in Montlake -- just one of three players to do that with quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and Fautanu -- and he gave up no sacks. Zero. Zip.

In blocking for the left-handed Penix, Rosengarten always had his quarterback's backside, which actually made him a lead tackle, further endearing him to the pro scouts.

At the combine, he ran 4.92 seconds in the 40-yard dash, making him one of the fastest offensive linemen in Indianapolis.

Longtime draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. liked Rosengarten so much he had the Husky tackle near the end of his first round in his mock drafts.

"Another year would have made him a much higher pick," Kiper said on the ESPN broadcast.

Yet Rosengarten, after four years in the UW football program, said the NFL had been a childhood dream and he felt his time had come to become a pro football player, and who was going to tell him otherwise.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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.