Polk Gives Huskies Fourth NFL Draftee in First 37 Picks

The Husky wide receiver helped his cause with a big Sugar Bowl outing.

Dan Raley | Apr 26, 2024

Ja'Lynn Polk celebrates after a big catch in the Sugar Bowl against Texas. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Ja'Lynn Polk had an inauspicious introduction to University of Washington football, catching a pass over the middle on his first play against Montana and breaking his collarbone. He was wheeled across the street to the UW Medical Center for surgery and, lucky for him, wasn't around when the Huskies were upset by the FCS team 13-7.

Yet Polk came out of all of that mess as good as new, finishing his UW career with 115 receptions for 1,967 yards and 16 touchdowns, and he was rewarded for it.

On Friday, the New England Patriots showed they were paying attention to his progress by drafting the Husky pass-catcher in the second round of the NFL Draft in Detroit, taking him with the 37th pick overall -- making him the fourth UW player selected, amazingly a rate of nearly one out of every nine draftees coming from Montlake.

The 6-foot-1, 204-pound Polk might have sold himself to the pros once and for all with his next-to-last college football outing against Texas in the Sugar Bowl. On New Year's Day, he grabbed 5 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown, catching a 77-yarder early in the 37-31Husky victory in New Orleans.

He hails from the football-crazy town of Lufkin in East Texas, a place that also has produced the great Dez Bryant. He spent his freshman season at Texas Tech during the COVID outbreak, seeking solace at the UW.

It worked out well for him as he and fellow Husky receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan were each deemed NFL worthy. While Polk often played in the shadow of the others, he came up with 69 catches for 1,159 yards and 9 scores this past season -- with his yardage ranking him sixth in UW football annals.

He didn't win any league honors or anything like that in Seattle, but becoming the 37th player drafted, just five slots out of the first round, was reward enough.

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

Published Apr 26, 2024

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.