Inside The Huskies

Haener and Eason Near Mirror Images as NFL 4th-Rounders

The former UW and Fresno State QB goes to New Orleans.
Dan Raley|
Haener and Eason Near Mirror Images as NFL 4th-Rounders
Haener and Eason Near Mirror Images as NFL 4th-Rounders

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Washington Huskies

It took four rounds and 127 selections, but a former University of Washington football player coached by Kalen DeBoer finally heard his name called out in the NFL draft.

In this case, it was quarterback Jake Haener, taken out of Fresno State on Saturday by the New Orleans Saints who maybe envision obtaining another a Drew Brees-type player.

The gritty 6-foot, 207-pound Haener, of course, departed Chris Petersen's UW program in 2019 fall camp immediately after losing the quarterback competition to Jacob Eason and considered coming back when DeBoer took over the Huskies in 2022.

For comparative purposes, the 6-foot-6, 231-pound Eason was a fourth-round pick for the Indianapolis Colts in 2020, chosen as the 122nd — just five slots higher than Haener — and is with his fourth NFL franchise in the Carolina Panthers.

While Haener might be much shorter than the pros prefer, he brings an intangible that's hard to overlook. He has that will to win, which was never more evident than when he led Fresno State to a last-second 40-37 victory over UCLA at the Rose Bowl, throwing a late TD pass while limping all the way down the field.

Haener spent two seasons at the UW, redshirting in 2017 and appearing four games the following season as the back-up to Jake Browning.

He finished his college career with combined passing stats of 740-for-1085 for 9,120 yards with 68 touchdowns throws and 18 interceptions.

Meantime, the Huskies were still waiting for the one of their latest players to be drafted.

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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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