Finally, Denzel Boston Hears Name Called in Draft

As predicted by several analysts over the past week, the Cleveland Browns selected Denzel Boston in the NFL Draft.

It just happened about one round, roughly 15 picks and close to 21 hours later than expected when the former University of Washington wide receiver heard his name called out in the second round as the 39th pick overall, and seventh of the day.

Boston was the first UW player to come off the draft board and, even with the draft delay, caps an uplifting Montlake football story.

In December 2021, the Husky program had just lost eight games in a season, fired a coach, hired another coach and then unveiled a skeletal five-person recruiting class.

Not a lot of people were feeling overly optimistic about the Huskies when a somewhat unknown coach Kalen DeBoer sat down and ticked off the names of just five signees: Germie Bernard, Parker Brailsford, Lance Holtzclaw, Ryan Otton and Denzel Boston.

Yet UW football would bounce back in a big way, dip again and rebound once more behind the stay-true-to-Montlake ways of Boston, a lanky 6-foot-4 local kid who got passed over in Thursday's first round but ended up with the Browns a day later.

For this kid from the Puyallup area, he comes off a 62-catch, 881-yard and 11-touchdown season to be the first UW player taken off the 2026 draft board.

All along, Boston kept the faith that the Huskies would help him become a pro football player, through the coaching change from Jimmy Lake to DeBoer, in climbing up on the depth chart behind NFL-bound receivers Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja'Lynn Polk, to another coaching change from DeBoer to Jedd Fisch.

"He really just wanted to stay local, and, when I saw the film, I wanted him to stay local, too, there was no question,” DeBoer said in December 2021. “He's got a long frame. The catch radius is enormous."

Denzel Boston signals first down while Carver Willis shares in the moment. | Dave Sizer photo

That sounded like a fairly accurate scouting report that held up for a kid who was a 3-star prospect back then and maybe not the most touted member of his miniature UW signing class.

Boston initially would take a backseat to Bernard, a 4-star receiver from the Las Vegas area who was his Husky teammate for two seasons after spending a year at Michigan State and the past two at Alabama with DeBoer.

Bernard went eight picks after Boston, 47th overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Brailsford, a center, similarly followed those others to Alabama and is considered a mid-round draft choice, while Holtzclaw, an edge rusher, is finishing up at Utah, and Otton, a tight end, had to medically retire.

Denzel Boston celebrates the win over Illinois. | Dave Sizer photo

Boston had his Husky debut in 2022 against Portland State, and made stuff happen at the end of a one-sided 52-6 win for the Huskies by scoring on a 2-yard end-around run, not a reception. It was a beginning.

Later that season, he played on the opening drive against Oregon in Eugene, getting a taste of a huge game up close, while redshirting.

"Basically, you know, what it all came up to was me coming here ready, coming to earn my spot and earn my way up the depth chart," Boston said.

Once the talented triumverate of Odunze, McMillan and Polk left following the 2023 season, it was Boston's turn to become a featured Husky receiver and he did that with career totals of 132 receptions for 1,781 yards and 20 touchdowns.

He stayed even after nearly a dozen schools approached him about transferrin g before the Huskies played in the 2024 Sun Bowl against Louisville. He survived getting robbed in downtown Seattle following that season.

Nothing could take him away from Montlake. Until now.

He was talented, homegrown and patient all along, and now Boston is a pro football player.

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