Latest Mock Draft Has UW's Penix, Odunze as First-Rounders
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Throughout the season, Kalen DeBoer says he and his coaching staff have held low-key conversations with University of Washington football players with eligibility remaining regarding their NFL possibilities.
This is done, he said, to help these Huskies find out how much they're valued and where they could be slotted by the pros and for them to make informed decisions on whether or not to enter the draft right away.
Plus, it keeps the Husky coaching staff abreast of the team's potential position needs in moving forward with recruiting efforts nationwide.
"There's certainly conversations that position coaches and myself are just having as the season has gone on," DeBoer recently said. "We're trying to help them out. We're trying to educate them."
That said, DeBoer and company likely better find a new starting quarterback and leading wide receiver for the 2023 season.
In its latest mock draft, USA TODAY's draftwire.com has the UW signal-caller Michael Penix Jr. going with the 14th pick of the first round to the Indianapolis Colts and his top Husky pass-catcher Rome Odunze slotted No. 24 in the opening round and headed to the New York Giants. Penix is a junior, Odunze a sophomore, in their pandemic-enhanced college eligibility.
Pure and simple, people are just starting to catch on to the top talent behind the Huskies' resurgent 10-2 season that enabled them to finish tied for second in the Pac-12 standings and might land them in the Rose or Cotton bowls.
Which would mean the 6-foot-3, 213-pound Penix — who leads the nation with 4,354 passing yards and 362.8 yards per game — would go from Indiana University to the UW and back to Indiana.
Makes perfectly good geographical sense.
If all of this played out the way draftwire.com sees it, Penix would be the fourth quarterback taken in the draft, behind Alabama's Bryce Young, who is pegged as the No. 1 overall pick going to the Houston Texans; Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, projected at No. 3 and headed to the Detroit Lions; and Florida's Anthony Richardson, regarded as the fifth selection and bound to the Carolina Panthers.
As for the 6-foot-3, 201-pound Odunze, his stock has risen quickly to the point that this USA TODAY entity views him as the third-best receiver in the draft and one of five first-rounders at his position.
Only TCU's Quentin Johnston and USC's Jordan Allison are rated higher in this mock draft than Odunze by Draftwire.com. Johnston is listed No. 11 overall in the first round, which would send him to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Allison is pegged No. 18, which would make him a New England Patriots selection.
The Giants might be the NFL team more in need of receiving help than anyone else, which would lead them to Odunze, who has a dazzling 70 catches for 1,088 yards and 7 touchdowns. The junior from Las Vegas, who size-wise could resemble another DK Metcalf with another 20-25 pounds on him, has turned in six 100-yard receiving games so far.
These two UW players haven't left yet or suggested they might, but it's hard to see why anyone would stay in the college ranks if they're a certifiable first-round pick, especially slotted in the upper two-thirds of the top 32 players.
So the Husky coaches are talking to them, no doubt encouraging these two to think of what's best for them as football players, where an injury can change everything in an instance and the money could set them up for life.
"People are going to be all over these guys to figure out what they're doing," DeBoer said. "We're certainly having low-level conversations with them to help them find answers if they have questions."
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