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Inside The Huskies

Two More Huskies Receive Mini-Camp Invitations

Kicker Grady Gross and quarterback Kai Horton will have NFL auditions going forward.
Dan Raley|
Grady Gross accepts congratulations after a Husky game.
Grady Gross accepts congratulations after a Husky game. | Skylar Lin Visuals

For the 2025 University of Washington football team, NFL opportunities continue to emerge, with seven players drafted, two more earning free-agent contracts and now two more receiving rookie mini-camp invitations.

Place-kicker Grady Gross and back-up quarterback Kai Horton are the latest to line up pro football auditions, with Gross set to kick for the Kansas City Chiefs while Horton will take snaps across town for the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, both in early May.

The 5-foot-11, 210-pound Gross is looking for an NFL job after serving as the Huskies' top kicker for three seasons and converting 46 of 61 career field-goal attempts, with a long of 51 yards. As a freshman, he handled kickoffs only.

He enjoyed accurate seasons in 2023, when he converted 18 of 22 attempts for a Husky team that went 14-1 and advanced to the College Football Playoff national championship game, and was good on 10 of 13 kicks this past fall.

Gross initially was a walk-on or non-scholarship player from Scottsdale, Arizona, who had his tuition paid for as a reward for kicking a 42-yard field goal with no time left to beat Washington State 24-21 in the 2023 Apple Cup at Husky Stadium.

Former Husky coach Kalen DeBoer made the offer in the locker room that day in front of the team.

As a junior, Gross served as a team captain but had his least successful season when he connected on 18 off 26 field-goal attempts while dealing with a midseason slump.

Kai Horton shakes hands with a Husky teammate.
Kai Horton shakes hands with a Husky teammate. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The 6-foot-4, 222-pound Horton faces much longer odds of finding NFL work, but give him credit for chasing that dream.

Initially a Tulane player for four seasons, he spent this past fall with the Huskies and appeared in four games.

Horton threw just 13 passes, completing 7 of them for 98 yards. As a rusher, he scored on runs of 10 yards against UC Davis and 2 yards against Purdue among eight carries.

The Huskies' seven drafted players ranked them among the top 15 college teams with the most picks this time.

The UW draftees included wide receiver Denzel Boston, second round to Cleveland; cornerback Tacario Davis, third round to Cincinnati; running back Jonah Coleman, fourth round to Denver; Carver Willis, fourth round to San Francisco; cornerback Ephesians Prysock, fourth round to San Francisco; defensive tackle Anterio Thompson, sixth round to Atlanta; and edge rusher Zach Durfee, seventh round to Jacksonsville.

Tight end Quentin Moore and wide receiver Omari Evans have signed free-agent contracts with the Washington Commanders and Kansas City Chiefs, respectively.

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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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