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4 Huskies Among 324 NFL Combine Invitees

The UW is hoping to provide a pair of first-round draft picks.
Dan Raley|
4 Huskies Among 324 NFL Combine Invitees
4 Huskies Among 324 NFL Combine Invitees

Kyler Gordon, Trent McDuffie, Cade Otton and Luke Wattenberg will be together again at the NFL Combine on March 1-7 in Indianapolis, looking for only positive results following an incredibly disappointing University of Washington football campaign.

They'll be among the 324 prospective draftees invited to an event last held in 2020 because of the pandemic.

This foursome will try to elevate their draft regard through a series of physical tests, hoping to avoid what happened two years ago to former Husky teammates Jacob Eason and Trey Adams.

Both once mentioned as potential first-rounders, Eason came away from Indy having fallen to a disheartening fifth-round pick at quarterback while the oft-injured Adams, turning in extremely low numbers as an offensive tackle, went undrafted.

Both highly regarded cornerbacks, Gordon and McDuffie enter the Combine ultimately hoping to become the Huskies' first multiple set of first-round picks in seven years, and fifth in the history of the draft.

In 2015, the UW had three first-rounders in nose tackle Danny Shelton (12), cornerback Marcus Peters (18) and linebacker Shaq Thompson (25). 

Prior to that, the Huskies provided more than one first-round pick in running back Napoleon Kaufman (17) and tight end Mark Bruener (27) in 1995; defensive tackle Steve Emtman (1) and cornerback Dana Hall (18) in 1991; and center Rudy Mucha (4) and defensive back Dean McAdams (8).

For a bad UW team, McDuffie and Gordon were flawless in their pass-coverage skills, grading out as high any corners in the Pac-12 and among the best nationwide. According to the analysts, McDuffie could be a top 10 pick, Gordon a late-opening-round choice.

Otton, a first-team All-Pac-12 tight end in 2020, appeared in just 8 of 12 games last fall because of COVID and presumably an ankle injury after he was seen riding on a cart at season's end. He'd probably be satisfied if he could get taken in the second or third round.

A sixth-year senior who spent his last two seasons at center, the 6-foot-5, 300-pound Wattenberg is pegged as a third-day pick and would likely be happy to just get drafted.

The four Huskies are among 35 Pac-12 players who received combine invites. Arizona State has the most conference players heading to Indianapolis with eight while Oregon has six and USC five.

Overall, the SEC will send 81 players to the combine, with national-champion Georgia providing 14 invitees and Alabama 10.

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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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