Husky Football Blog

Times reporter Bob Condotta keeps the news coming about the Montlake Dawgs.

April 22, 2008 8:31 AM

A look at Husky draft prospects

As part of our weeklong preview of the NFL Draft, I wrote today about the outlook for former Huskies in this weekend's draft.. The consensus is that it doesn't sound all that good in terms of hearing their names called this weekend.

As the story details, the Husky with the best chance of getting drafted is said to be Marcel Reece, whose mix of speed and size (he weighed in at 231) intrigues NFL scouts, who think Reece could be tried at several different offensive positions.

The overall theme of the story, however, is that UW's lack of success on the field the last few years is also mirrored by its lack of draftees come April.

I prepared this chart for the story, but it didn't make it in the paper so I'll present it here. It shows that UW has had the second-fewest draftees of any Pac-10 school since 2003.

PAC-10 PICKS
Over the last five seasons, only Arizona among Pac-10 schools has had fewer players taken in the NFL Draft than UW. Here's a list
USC --- 30 (7 first-rounders)
Stanford --- 20 (1)
Cal --- 18 (4)
Oregon --- 16 (1)
Oregon State --- 14 (2)
UCLA --- 14 (1)
Arizona State --- 12 (1)
Washington State --- 11 (1)
Washington --- 9 (1)
Arizona --- 8 (0)

And here are UW's draftees since 2003:

2003 --- None

2004 --- 1, Reggie Williams, WR, Jacksonville
2, Tank Johnson, DT, Chicago
3, Marquis Cooper, LB, Tampa Bay
7, Cody Pickett, QB, San Francisco

2005
2, Khalif Barnes, OL, Jacksonville
6, Derrick Johnson, CB, San Francisco

2006
4, Joe Toledo, OT, Miami

2007
4, Isaiah Stanback, QB, Dallas
4, Dashon Goldson, DB, San Francisco

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Posted by HMFD 82

9:02 AM, Apr 22, 2008

First!!!

Get well soon Juan...

Posted by kewg it

9:08 AM, Apr 22, 2008

Bob,

Why don't you give us some historical perspective by comparing this to an average number of draftees over the same time period in prior decades or something? That might be more useful.

Posted by Bob Condotta

9:13 AM, Apr 22, 2008

Kewg it --- Not a bad idea. Maybe I'll do that later in the week. But I did try to put it in perspective by comparing UW to its peers the last five years. To me, that's pretty telling that the NFL has judged the talent here to mostly not be worth drafting.

Posted by Patrick from Kent

9:15 AM, Apr 22, 2008

Why Kewg...

All that will show is that the programs is in shambles...

Not saying the Cougs are going anywhere soon.

Posted by Whit

9:17 AM, Apr 22, 2008

UW has two girls in the running for Miss Tempe12. Support your Huskies and vote! http://www.tempe12.com/miss-tempe12/

Posted by kewg it

9:36 AM, Apr 22, 2008

In the NFL, speed is the name of the game for skill players. Solid lineman (ie. no baby fat) are also a must. I think the biggest thing this shows is the overall lack of depth on both lines, poor strength and conditioning work, and lack of team speed since 2003. These are obvious, and have been addressed many times before. These issues are well on their way to being corrected, so things look much brighter in the future.

Posted by Nihon Inu

10:13 AM, Apr 22, 2008

Hi Bob,

Were any of the 20 Stanford players that were drafted recruited by Tyrone?

Posted by old dawg

10:15 AM, Apr 22, 2008

IIRC, the number of rounds in the draft has been reduced significantly in recent years, and that would make any comparison between eras less meaningful.

Still, Bob's original point is very valid.

Posted by Bob Condotta

10:24 AM, Apr 22, 2008

Nihon --- Yes. In fact, most of them were, and I thought about trying to break that down, but without knowing the exact ins and outs of who was already in the fold when Willingham left there I wasn't sure I could do it accurately. But that may be something good to do in a week or so when spring is over and we have more time. Willingham left Stanford in December of 2001 so anybody drafted through 2005 was definitely recruited by him.

Posted by kewg it

10:52 AM, Apr 22, 2008

Bob,

Might you go to the source himself? Would Ty be willing to go through something like that quickly with you?

Posted by onewoodwacker

1:37 PM, Apr 22, 2008

Rivals.com has Steve Emtman as the 3rd worst overall #1 pick in the history of pro football, trailing only #2. Ki-Jana Carter (Penn St. 1995) and #1. Walt Patulski (Notre Dame 1973).

Who ever REALLY KNOWS how all of this stuff is gonna turn out.