Sebastian Valdez Stands Out at Husky Pro Day with his Strength, Look

The one-time Montana State transfer seemingly made progress in getting noticed by NFL scouts.

Sebastian Valdez was a Husky Pro Day standout. / Dan Raley

A year ago, Husky Pro Day was like a rock concert. It was crowded. It was noisy. Every NFL franchise sent a representative or two or more to see what the stalwarts of the University of Washington's national championship runner-up team looked like up close.

They saw three first-rounders in quarterback Michael Penix Jr. , wide receiver Rome Odunze and offensive tackle Troy Fautanu. Ten players overall were drafted. Without question, it was a glitzy talent show.

On Monday, the mood was much more subdued, the turnout less involved, the atmosphere far more tame. Maybe a third of the pro scouts on hand from the year before came to look over 14 players, with just one or two of these Huskies draft worthy.

This time, the guy who seemed to stick out in Dempsey Indoor was defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez, the Montana State transfer who spent his fifth and final college season with the Huskies, looking for a bigger playing platform.

All the 6-foot-3, 301-pound Valdez had to do was take his shirt off to get anyone's attention, but he did more than that.

The chiseled player showed off his elite strength by bench-pressing 225 pounds 34 times -- 12 more than any of his teammates -- and he ran a sub five-second 40-yard dash.

"I'm proud of all the training I've done," Valdez said.

From the Big Sky, he came in and started all 13 games for the Huskies this past season, showing his coaches that he belonged at the Big Ten level.

Valdez signed with Kalen DeBoer's staff only to have all of those coaches leave before he could spend more than two weeks on campus. He next had to ingratiate himself to Jedd Fisch's guys, namely new defensive-line coach Jason Kaufusi. It worked out.

"It was cloudy, for sure," he said of the abrupt Husky coaching change. "It was unknown. It was unnerving. But the more I got to talk to Kaufusi, the more assurance I got. ... It was probably the best decision I ever made."

For Pro Day, each player wore a purple shirt and shorts. Their names and UW jersey numbers were emblazoned across the back, their positions and numbers across the front.

Wide receiver Giles Jackson also made himself noticeable during the three-hour workout by running the fastest 40 time at 4.5 seconds and turning in the top standing vertical leap at 37.5 inches.

As they were measured, everyone seemed to be a little shorter than listed on UW rosters, which tend to round off the numbers.

The 40-yard dash sort of had a pace car involved, someone who later might be deemed a ringer when he fills out. Hudson Bruener, the 13-year-old bespectacled brother of Husky linebacker Carson Bruener, got down in a stance, charged across the ariticial surface and ran betwee the two sets of bleachers set up as a finish line and for scouts to sit and time players.

"I know he wasn't faster than me," wisecracked the older Bruener, who ran in the 4.5 range at the NFL Scouting Combine last week and was maybe a tick slower at Dempsey.

Jedd Fisch was there chatting with scouts and watching his former players audition. Cameron Foster, the NFL agent hired as UW revenue share director, took impromptu meetings with players during the Pro Day event.

Multiple current Huskies came to watch, with hulking freshman offensive tackle John Mills, looking every bit of the 340 pounds Fisch said he and other newcomers were, watching off to the side.

Mills, with his long flowing blond hair, would give the Huskies offensive line a definitive Viking warrior look should he win the job next to sophomore center Landen Hatchett, who has similar tresses.

Valdez proved noticeable not only for his body-builder look, but he had a huge tattoo inked across the top of his back, with his name in a script display.

It's a name the scouts no doubt have now filed away for future reference, with this former Big Sky player possibly a third-day draft pick if not someone who will get a free-agent camp invitation. He's already got an NFL body.

Along the way, he just had to prove to Fisch's staff he could handle himself on the field. He felt good about his performances against Penn State and Oregon, that he belonged on the field with those other guys, that he had come full circle.

"They had the trust that an FCS lineman could play in the Big Ten," Valdez said, almost pinching himself. "It was exciting."

No doubt, it still is.

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