Inside The Huskies

With NFL Draft Complete, Look Where Boston Turns Up on Mock

The Husky wide receiver has at least one forecaster high on his pass-catching talents.

Dan Raley

Denzel Boston had 9 touchdown catches in 2024.
Denzel Boston had 9 touchdown catches in 2024. / Skylar Lin Visuals

The NFL Draft is not even 24 hours old and the mock drafts have come out screaming their projected headliner names for next year's talent grab.

And you always wondered what happened to all of those failed weather forecasters.

Yet we pause to consider one of these early bird mocks because University of Washington football players, if not for linebacker Carson Bruener going to the Pittsburgh Steelers on the 221st pick this weekend, were summarily shut out of the process this time.

Something that describes itself as WalterFootball -- because, well, it was founded by a guy named Walter -- alone seems to have restored faith in UW talent once more with its preview of the 2026 first round.

It boldly has Husky wide receiver Denzel Boston going to the Los Angeles Chargers with the 13th overall pick.

That's brazen stuff, considering that nearly all of the college football analysts have omitted the 6-foot-4, 209-pound junior from Puyallup, Washington, from their early lists of top pass-catchers for the coming season.

There's a bit of irony here when noting that Boston is not even fully engaged in UW spring football right now as he recovers from unspecified offseason surgery.

According to WalterFootball, the reasoning behind this pick was this: "The Chargers will have to find a viable outside receiver for Justin Herbert at some point. Denzel Boston is a huge receiver with big-play potential."

That's right, this outfit potentially sees a former Oregon quarterback throwing darts to this Husky with two seasons of eligibility remaining.

Of course, by personal stats alone, Boston, with his 63 catches for 834 yards and 9 touchdowns last season, is a sure-fire talent who still has loads of time to win over those experts who haven't flagged him for their preseason lists.

He has the size, speed, hands and Walter's football trust.

To get 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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