UW Huskies fans, here’s your NFL playoff team to root for

The UW Huskies’ football season ended with a nail-biting Sun Bowl loss on New Year’s Eve.

But for Dawgs fans still looking for their Husky fix, there’s an NFL playoff team they can bandwagon.

How UW Huskies, WSU Cougars fared in rookie NFL seasons

The NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a whopping six former Huskies on their 53-man roster: rookie wide receiver Jalen McMillan, Pro Bowl nose tackle Vita Vea, tight end Cade Otton, outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, defensive lineman Greg Gaines and rookie tight end Devin Culp. Five of those six former UW players were drafted by the Bucs, creating a Montlake-to-Tampa pipeline of sorts.

The cast of former Husky stars will be on display this Sunday night when the No. 3 seed Buccaneers (10-7) host the No. 6 seed Washington Commanders (12-5) in an NFC wild-card playoff game. Tampa Bay is one of the league’s hottest teams, having won six of its past seven games to capture the NFC South crown.

Here’s a look at the six Tampa Bay Huskies.

WR Jalen McMillan

McMillan, a rookie third-round draft pick, has exploded onto the scene over the past month.

Over the final five weeks of the season, McMillan racked up 316 receiving yards and a league-high seven touchdown catches – two more than any other player in the NFL over that span. During that stretch, he recorded at least 50 yards and a touchdown in all five games. Among the highlights was his go-ahead 32-yard TD catch in the fourth quarter of this past Sunday’s NFC South-clinching win over the New Orleans Saints.

With his red-hot closing stretch, McMillan finished with 37 receptions for 461 yards and eight TDs in 13 games. He tied for 13th in the league in touchdown catches and had the second-most TD grabs among all rookies. And he did so despite missing four games with a hamstring injury. McMillan’s breakout has been vital for the Bucs, who needed a No. 2 wideout behind Mike Evans with Chris Godwin sidelined by an ankle injury since Week 7.

McMillan’s best season at UW came in 2022, when he totaled 1,098 yards receiving and a team-high nine touchdown catches. He battled through injuries for most of 2023, but still mustered 559 yards receiving and five TD catches during the Huskies’ run to the national championship game. He came up big in the 2023 Pac-12 title game, recording nine catches for a season-high 131 yards in UW’s victory over archrival Oregon.

THE DIME 🎯 THE CATCH 🙌

📺: #NOvsTB on FOX pic.twitter.com/yog14jQpzx

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) January 5, 2025

NT Vita Vea

Vea, the No. 12 overall pick by Tampa Bay in 2018, has had yet another highly productive season with the Bucs. The 6-foot-4, 347-pound nose tackle garnered his second career Pro Bowl nod, producing career highs of seven sacks and 10 tackles for loss. He also tied for 14th out of 132 interior defenders in Pro Football Focus grading.

Over his three seasons at UW, Vea totaled 9.5 sacks and 16 tackles for loss. He was the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2017.

DROPPED BY VITA VEA 💪

📺: #NOvsTB on FOX pic.twitter.com/rltK7pwBPQ

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) January 5, 2025

TE Cade Otton

Otton, a 2022 fourth-round pick by Tampa Bay, is enjoying the most productive season of his three-year NFL career. The Tumwater native is the team’s second-leading receiver, with 59 catches for 600 yards and four touchdowns in 14 games. In Week 7, he had a career-high 100 receiving yards against the Baltimore Ravens.

Otton missed the final three regular-season games with a knee injury, but was listed a full participant in practice on Thursday.

Otton totaled 1,026 receiving yards and nine TDs over four seasons at UW.

Cade Otton time. #NationalTightEndsDay

📺: #ATLvsTB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/UKxppwoiSk

— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2024

OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka

Tryon-Shoyinka, drafted by Tampa Bay at No. 32 overall in 2021, has recorded two sacks, three tackles for loss, two pass breakups and a forced fumble in 15 games this season.

The Renton native had eight sacks and 13 tackles for loss at UW in 2019.

DL Greg Gaines

Gaines has one sack and two tackles for loss this season as a rotational piece along Tampa Bay’s defensive front. The 6-foot-1, 312-pound defensive lineman has played the past two seasons with the Bucs after spending his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, who drafted him with a 2019 fourth-round pick.

Gaines, who has a Washington “W” tattooed on his right arm, recorded 8.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss over four seasons with the Huskies.

TE Devin Culp

Culp, a rookie seventh-round draft pick, has worked his way into the Bucs’ tight end rotation over the past two weeks. The Spokane native has five catches for 88 yards over the past two games, with four of his five receptions going for first downs.

As UW’s No. 2 tight end last year behind Jack Westover, Culp totaled 208 receiving yards and two TD catches during the Huskies’ run to the national title game.

More on UW Huskies football

• Report: UW Huskies land transfer portal’s top-ranked cornerback
• The 29 new UW Huskies recruits and transfers enrolling this month
• Huard: The big selling point Jedd Fisch has for UW Huskies recruits
• UW Huskies officially hire Ryan Walters as defensive coordinator
• UW Huskies Football Survey: Fan thoughts on Fisch, state of CFB

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