DeGraaf Draws UW Attention As Mackey Award Candidate

The UW tight end continues to draw attention to himself as he enters his third season.

Decker DeGraaf shows off his Spring Game catch. | Dave Sizer photo

To salute the nation's top college football tight end, the Mackey Award annually has singled out 26 different winners since it was created, including one from the University of Washington in Austin Seferian-Jenkins in 2013.

Considering the high-grade iineage for the Huskies, it's almost a little surprising there haven't been one or two more from Montlake.

That said, the UW 's Decker DeGraaf over the weekend was one of 37 tight ends named to the Mackey watch list and should have a fairly strong candidacy.

The 6-foot-4, 245-pound junior from Sam Dimas, California, comes off a 32-catch, 360-yard, 2-touchdown season in 2025 and stands to greatly increase those stats with the Huskies incorporating him more into the offense this coming fall.

DeGraaf becomes the fourth UW player named to a preseason award watch list, joining quarterback Demond Williams Jr., who's up for the Maxwell Award; center Landen Hatchett, a candidate for the Rimington Trophy, and kicker Tyler Robles, in the running for the Lou Groza Award.

On top of that, coach Jedd Fisch is a candidate for the Dodd Trophy.

🙌 @DeckerDegraaf is one of 37 tight ends in the nation named to the 2026 @TheMackeyAward preseason watchlist. ☔️ pic.twitter.com/3XhVjVPbOe

— Washington Football (@UW_Football) August 9, 2026

Seferian-Jenkins, retired from the NFL, became a Mackey Award winner after catching 69 passes for 852 yards and 7 scores in his last of three UW seasons before turning to pro football and becoming a second-round draft pick for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

As a sophomore in 2012, he finished third in the Mackey voting following a 36-catch, 450-yard and 7-touchdown season.

From the 26 previous winners, just four schools have had repeat winners in Iowa, which has had three recipients, and Arkansas, Florida and Georgia, each with three. Georgia, in fact, has had the only individual repeat Macky winner in Brock Bowers, who took home this hardware in 2022 and 2023.

Decker DeGraaf hauls in a touchdown catch against Eastern Michigan. | Skylar Lin Visuals

DeGraaf enters his third UW season after starting 16 of 26 games, including 11 of 13 in 2025, and catching a combined 47 passes for 593 yards and 5 scores.

He had a sensational beginning to his career, catching a 33-yard touchdown pass just a few plays into it during the 2024 season opener against Weber State.

While it was initially declared that he had scored on his first college play, DeGraaf himself corrected that claim himself by indicating he had been on the field for a few snaps previous to it.

Either way, the Huskies have looked to him nonstop since he joined the program and, if his spring ball usage was any indication, he should be headed to a big year.

The Mackey Award is named for John Mackey, who is widely considered the greatest tight end who ever played the game. He's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame following a 10-year career in which he caught 331 passes for 5,236 yards and 38 touchdowns for the Baltimore Colts and San Diego Chargers.

A college player for Syracuse, Mackey died in 2011 at age 69.