The UW Huskies draft prospect that will surprise people in NFL
Apr 10, 2024, 10:23 AM | Updated: 11:25 am
Roger Rosengarten of the Washington Huskies on Nov. 19, 2022. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
The 2024 NFL Draft will be a big one for the UW Huskies.
Is this the reason NFL Draft stock for UW Huskies’ Penix is all over the place?
Star receiver Rome Odunze is expected to be a top-10 pick, left tackle Troy Fautanu is also considered a lock to be a first-round pick and quarterback Michael Penix Jr. will go in the first or second round.
But those three are hardly the only draft prospects the Huskies have after making the national championship game last season. Former UW and NFL quarterback Brock Huard thinks Washington has a prospect that may be getting slept on who will turn some heads at the NFL level.
“Roger Rosengarten, we chatted with him about a month and a half ago and you felt his maturity, right?” Huard told Mike Salk during Wednesday’s Brock and Salk on Seattle Sports. “… He just blew it away because he’s a mature professional dude … He’s just buttoned up. He’s a grown up.”
Rosengarten was UW’s right tackle the last two years, protecting Penix’s blind side. He was a freshman All-American selection in 2022 and was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention in 2023.
Rosengarten was one of many UW players attending the 2023 NFL combine, and he tested extremely well, measuring in at 6 foot 5 and 308 pounds and running the 40-yard dash in 4.92 seconds with a 30-inch vertical leap.
“He’s dynamic. He was the fastest offensive lineman in this draft. (He ran) a 4.9,” Huard said. “And he’s got great skill and can play right tackle and can play a little left tackle and he’s just a versatile guy. We’re gonna look up and go, ‘Man, that Roger Rosengarten, he’s yet another one of those Huskies from that ’24 class that played 10-plus years in this league.’ He’s got that kind of upside.”
Huard isn’t the only one high on Rosengarten as an NFL prospect.
NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper has Rosengarten as a first-round pick in his latest mock draft, slotting him to the San Francisco 49ers with the 31st overall pick.
“Rosengarten could challenge Colton McKivitz for snaps at right tackle. Rosengarten didn’t allow any sacks in his 1,158 pass-blocking snaps for the Huskies,” Kiper wrote. “He also has some familiarity with one of San Francisco’s stars, as Christian McCaffrey’s dad, Ed, was his high school coach for two seasons at Valor Christian in Colorado.”
Which NFL team is best fit for UW Huskies QB Michael Penix Jr.?
