Huskies' Trice Drafted in Third Round, Joins Penix and Lake in Atlanta

The UW edge rusher went in the third round to the Falcons.

Bralen Trice was always good for the big moment, with the University of Washington edge rusher twice terrorizing Texas and earning defensive player of the game rewards in the Sugar Bowl and the Alamo Bowl.

On Friday, the 6-foot-4, 274-pound player from Phoenix rose to the occasion once more, getting drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft in Detroit by the Atlanta Falcons with the 74th overall pick -- making him the sixth Husky selected and putting the UW draft rate at one player for every 12 picks.

With so many Huskies getting drafted, some were bound to become NFL teammates and it has happened in Atlanta, with Trice and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. remaining linked together as pro football players. Penix went to the Falcons in the first round with the eighth overall pick.

Considering his success in the college postseason record, it's maybe a little surprising the Dallas Cowboys or Houston Texans didn't reach out for him, but the Falcons will be just fine with him. Trice finds himself reunited with his former UW coach Jimmy Lake, who's now the Atlanta defensive coordinator.

"I won't say anything bad about him," Trice said more than once of Lake, who was fired during the UW's 4-8 season in 2021.

Trice didn't play in any games in his first two seasons at the UW, redshirting in 2019 and opting out because of the COVID pandemic the following year.

At that point, then UW edge rusher coach Ikaika Malloe, now the UCLA defensive coordinator, made the memorable comment that Trice would be even better than former Husky edge rusher Joe Tryon, who had gone to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a first-rounder. He wasn't wrong.

In his third UW game, Trice showed off the possibilities in his game by picking up an Arkansas State fumble and rumbling 72 yards to score.

Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff made Trice a full-fledged starter the past seasons and he finished his Husky career with 101 tackles, 28.5 tackles for loss and 18 sacks -- picking up two each of the latter in his games against Texas.

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