Seahawks draftee Will Dissly details his transition from DL to TE at UW

The newest Seahawks tight end played that position for all of two seasons in college, but Seattle’s front office liked what they saw from Will Dissly for the Washington Huskies enough to make him a fourth-round pick in the NFL Draft.

Full list of Seahawks picks, drafted UW and WSU players

On Wednesday, Dissly joined 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock and Salk to talk about how he ended up catching passes for Chris Petersen’s team even though he started his career in Montlake on the defensive line.

“I played both ways in high school so tight end was still in the back of my mind, and I was like, ‘Hey, Coach Pete, can I jump in one of these drills?’” Dissly said, referring to practices before the Huskies played in the Heart of Dallas Bowl in 2015. “Caught a ball and looked good and he was like, ‘Hey, do you want to have a package on offense for this bowl game?’”

Dissly never looked back, making four receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown as a junior in 2016 and breaking out with 19 receptions for 230 yards and two scores last season. He also proved to be an asset as a blocker in the run game, which was what really stood out to the Seahawks leading up to the draft.

For Dissly’s part, he said moving to offense didn’t take much of a change to his mindset.

“You approach every day with the same mentality, which is get coffee, go to work, study the playbook, have that thing memorized,” he said. “Not a lot changed from a mental standpoint but I did lose a little weight and got a little faster, and I think it was for the better.”

You can find Dissly’s full interview in this podcast.

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