Inside The Huskies

UW Roster Review, No. 0-99: Draco Bynum Needs to Get Healthy, Make a Move

The defensive tackle missed the spring game with an injury while trying to work his way up the depth chart.
Dan Raley|
UW Roster Review, No. 0-99: Draco Bynum Needs to Get Healthy, Make a Move
UW Roster Review, No. 0-99: Draco Bynum Needs to Get Healthy, Make a Move

Draco Bynum showed up nearly every day for University of Washington spring football practice, lining up at defensive tackle and outside linebacker, and shifting anywhere from the second to the fourth teams while fitting in wherever he could.

He shared the interior with Jacob Bandes, Kuao Peihopa and Noa Ngalu. He played opposite Cooper McDonald and Bralen Trice on the outside.

Bynum, no relation to the Husky wide receiver named Terrell, did everything that was asked of him — and then he missed the payoff.

The 6-foot-4, 280-pound sophomore from Wilsonville, Oregon, sat out the Saturday spring game, kneeling in the sunshine on a scooter with his right foot in a boot, and he watched the others take all the final spring reps.

A slow progression has been the college football career path for Bynum so far.

Now three years in the UW program, the long-haired D-lineman has added 30 pounds to his large frame and done a lot of dirty work.

Yet he's appeared in just four games over that time, all one-sided outcomes favoring the UW, and he's not recorded a tackle yet. 

Going down the roster in numerical order, this is another of our post-spring assessments of all of the Husky talent at hand, gleaned from a month of observations, as a way to keep everyone engaged during the offseason.

This Bynum wears No. 59, the only one on the roster with this digit. If only he could make be a little more proprietary with minutes.

Instead, he's somewhat buried on the depth chart, falling behind first-teamers Tuli Letuligasenoa and Taki Taimani, plus second-unit guys in Faatui Tuitele, Bandes and sometimes Ngalu, and now maybe even trailing the impressive new freshmen, Voi Tunuufi and Peihopa.

Often times, Bynum was on the field playing next to walk-on freshman Bradley McGannon.

Bynum, however, has time on his side with three full seasons remaining if he chooses, thanks to the pandemic eligibility provisions.

He's the guy who won the 2017 Big Man Challenge in Los Angeles, which was a show of strength and agility skills for high schoolers.

With 18 scholarship offers to sift through, Bynum picked the Huskies over Nebraska a week after attending the Cornhuskers' spring game.

With a first name that means "dragon" in Latin, and made well-known in the Harry Potter movies, he once spoke about entering medical school at the UW. Business appears to have changed his mind. 

So he's a motivated guy. 

He's not lacking toughness, which seems to run in the family.

Yet Bynum likely needs to channel all that strength and interest level into better technique or else he's going to forever be that guy watching from the Husky sideline on Saturdays.

With or without that scooter.

Bynum's 2021 Outlook: Projected defensive-line backup

UW Service Time: Played in 4 games

Stats: None

Individual Honors: Not yet

Pro Prospects: NFL free-agent signee

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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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