Inside The Huskies

Deven Bryant Is Everything That Is Right About Transfer Portal

The linebacker started 10 games for the Huskies this past season, but needed a new team.
Dan Raley|
Deven Bryant waits the next play at UW linebacker.
Deven Bryant waits the next play at UW linebacker. | Dave Sizer photo

Deven Bryant started the first 10 games at linebacker for the University of Washington football team and was a fairly solid performer this past season, finishing as the Huskies' third-leading tackler with 62. He was dependable, always in the right place.

Yet that didn't prevent him from losing his starting job when extra talented teammates Jacob Manu and Zaydrius Rainey-Sale both were healthy and eligible and opened at linebacker for the Huskies against UCLA in Bryant's hometown.

And it was only going to get more complicated for Bryant next season when former starting linebacker Buddah Al-Uqdah returned from a knee injury and Xe'ree Alexander continued to build on his LA Bowl defensive MVP performance for the UW.

In effect, Bryant's situation is everything that is right about the transfer portal, where to no fault of his own he got caught up in a glut of talented players stockpiled at his position and needed to be able to move on.

Bryant apparently is visiting USC on Saturday, according to Rivals, and touring a place that recruited him coming out of Southern California powerhouse football program St. John Bosco in 2022.

Ironically, the linebackers coach for the Trojans at the time was Brian Odom, who is the Huskies' coach at that position now.

To reiterate, the 5-foot-11, 230-pound Bryant didn't do anything wrong, didn't regress as a player, didn't get beat repeatedly, after becoming a starter for the Huskies.

He just found himself in competition with Manu, who was a first-team All-Pac-12 linebacker in 2023 from Arizona and the league's leading tackler with 116 while Bryant appeared in four UW games that season and redshirted.

Siimilar in size, the 5-foot-11, 225-pound Manu, after recovering from a 2024 knee injury suffered at Arizona, was a better player, more experienced and more likely to be an NFL player some day.

Deven Bryant warms up for the UW-Oregon game.
Deven Bryant warms up for the UW-Oregon game. | Dave Sizer photo

Bryant also found himself going up against the immensely talented Rainey-Sale, who could turn out to be better than all of the linebackers now wandering through Montlake, Manu included.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Rainey-Sale not only has four inches on both Bryant and Manu, he has the elite athleticism and playmaking ability that could make him a first-round NFL draft pick at some point in his career.

Bryant could turn out to be a starter and a leading tackler next season for someone such as USC or go elsewhere. He might become an NFL player himself. He's got a lot to offer someone.

Yet the Huskies have accumulated so much linebacker talent heading into 2026, something had to give at the UW and Bryant realized that.

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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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