Penix, Odunze, Fautanu All Drafted In First Round

For just the second time in UW football history, three Huskies were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft in the same year as Michael Penix Jr., Rome Odunze and Troy Fautanu were all chosen.
 
Penix was taken by Atlanta with the eighth pick, followed immediately by Odunze, who was selected by Chicago. Fautanu was the Steelers’ first-round pick, 20^th overall.
 
Washington also had two players (Penix and Odunze) go in the top-10 for just the second time ever. The last time that happened was in 1941, when Rudy Mucha (4^th pick) and Dean McAdams (8^th) did it. The only other time three Huskies went in round one was in 2015, when Danny Shelton (12), Marcus Peters (18) and Shaq Thompson (25) were all selected in the opening round.
 
Penix, a quarterback from Tampa, Fla., joined the Huskies in 2022 after four seasons at Indiana. At Washington, he led the Huskies to a 25-3 overall record, the 2023 Pac-12 title and a berth in the CFP National Championship Game. He led the nation in passing yards in both of his two seasons on Montlake, won the Maxwell Award and finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. He finished his two seasons at UW with 9,544 yards and 67 touchdown passes.
 
Odunze, a wide receiver from Las Vegas, was a four-year Husky who earned consensus, first-team All-America in 2023, when he led the nation with 1,640 receiving yards, third-most in Pac-12 history. He was also the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year for FBS.
 
Fautanu, an offensive tackle from Henderson, Nev., spent five years at Washington and capped his career by winning the Morris Trophy as the Pac-12’s top offensive lineman, as voted by opposing defensive linemen. He was also an Associated Press third-team All-American and first-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2023.