Inside The Huskies

Valdez Passes Torch to Next Strongest Husky Football Player

The departing UW defensive tackle had a candidate who wasn't initially obvious.

Dan Raley

Armon and Jayvon Parker share a moment at the Sun Bowl.
Armon and Jayvon Parker share a moment at the Sun Bowl. / UW

Midway through Husky Pro Day, the Parker brothers in workout clothes sauntered into Dempsey Indoor to have a look at the proceedings, to watch their former teammates audition for the assembled NFL scouts.

The pros couldn't have been faulted at all had they wanted to know more about these twins, a pair of defensive tackles from Detroit who appear noticeably bigger in body size from their winter workouts at the University of Washington.

However, each brother remains in recovery from an injury that either cut his 2024 season short or kept him from playing altogether. Plus they have two seasons of eligibility or more remaining.

Jayvon Parker, of course, was lost at Rutgers this past season with a ruptured Achilles tendon, while sibling Armon suffered another knee injury last spring that kept him sidelined throughout 2024.

Both seemed to be walking around just fine as they mixed in with the other Huskies who were between workouts or classes.

Off to the side, Jayvon Parker's name came up as an interesting part of the UW's strength and fitness discussion moving forward.

Sebastian Valdez, the Huskies' strongest player last season with a bench press upwards of 405 pounds, was asked who might succeed him in terms of claiming that notoriety, and he had this response.

"Maybe Jayvon Parker," Valdez said. "Go talk to him. He's a strong dude."

Four hundred-plus pounds, really?

"He's definitely hit 405," Valdez said.

Jayvon Parker, who's listed on the roster at 6-foot-3 and 297 pounds but now could be 10 or more pounds heavier for this coming season, didn't stick around Dempsey Indoor long enough to confirm any of that.

Which for him, probably was a very good sign -- because it means he's fairly mobile these days in bouncing back from that Achilles tear.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

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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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