Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. selected No. 8 by Falcons; Bears take Rome Odunze, Steelers pick Troy Fautanu in first round
SEATTLE – Michael Penix Jr.’s wait is complete. The 2023 Maxwell Award winner and former Washington quarterback finally knows where he’s going to begin his NFL career.
The 2023 Heisman runner-up, Penix went to the Atlanta Falcons with the eighth pick of the first round becoming the fourth quarterback off the board in the 2024 NFL draft on Thursday. He’s the second quarterback in Washington history drafted in the first round, joining Jake Locker, the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft.
Penix was the first Washington player selected in the first round.
“I’m just ready to see where I’m going so I can help a team win football games,” Penix said March 28.
Penix spent two years at Washington rewriting the program’s record books. He set the single-season passing record in 2022 after arriving from Indiana, then broke it again by throwing for 4,903 yards in 2023. He had a 25-3 record while wearing the purple and gold, and led the Football Bowl Subdivision in passing yards during both his seasons on Montlake.
The left-handed signal caller from Tampa, Florida, owns almost all of Washington’s junior and senior passing records. His 9,544 passing yards rank third in program history, behind only Jake Browning and Cody Pickett. Penix played in 28 games for the Huskies – 25 fewer than Browning and 12 fewer than Pickett.
Penix led Washington to its first Alamo Bowl victory in 2022, beating Texas 27-20. A year later, he guided the Huskies to their first College Football Playoff win, beating the Longhorns again, this time 37-31 in the Sugar Bowl. Penix threw for 430 yards and two touchdowns while adding 31 yards rushing to lead Washington to its first CFP championship game.
He was undefeated in three games against archrival Oregon, including a 34-31 win against the Ducks during the final Pac-12 championship game.
“It did fly by,” Penix said March 28. “Coming here, I didn’t know what to expect. I just expected to find a way to win football games and get back to having fun, and I was able to do that. I was super blessed about that. That’s what’s been keeping me going, having people that supported me through the whole journey, through the whole process no matter what.”
Despite the accolades, championships and program records, Penix’s stock fluctuated throughout the predraft process. His medical history, in particular, worried draft analysts.
The 6-foot-2, 217-pound quarterback suffered four season-ending injuries during his four years at Indiana. He tore his right ACL during his freshman and redshirt freshman seasons. A fractured right clavicle ended his sophomore season, before he separated his right AC joint as a junior in 2021. He transferred to Washington the next season and didn’t miss a game during his two-year tenure with the Huskies.
Following Washington’s 34-13 loss to Michigan in the CFP championship game, Penix participated in the Senior Bowl where he was named a starter before opting to sit out of the actual game.
At the NFL combine, Penix was one of the only top quarterbacks who went through the throwing drills, along with Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy and Oregon’s Bo Nix. Penix also threw at Washington’s pro day on March 28, and ran the 40-yard dash, registering an unofficial time around 4.5 seconds. He also had a 36.5-inch vertical jump and a broad jump reaching 10 feet, 5 inches.
“I just wanted to show I’m athletic, and I can do it with my legs if I have to,” Penix said at pro day.
Bears select Rome Odunze No. 9
On April 27, 2017, John Ross was selected in the first round of the NFL draft. He was picked ninth overall by the Cincinnati Bengals, becoming the third wide receiver in Washington program history to be taken in the first round.
Now, the Huskies have a fourth.
Wide receiver Rome Odunze was drafted by the Bears with the No. 9 pick , joining Ross, Reggie Williams and Dave Williams as first-round receivers from UW. The Las Vegas native was also the second Washington player selected in the 2024 NFL draft.
Odunze’s four-year tenure at Washington might’ve ended prematurely at various stages. He was a highly touted recruit out of Las Vegas preps powerhouse Bishop Gorman. His decision to choose the Huskies represented a massive win for then-wide receivers coach Junior Adams.
The 6-3, 215-pound wideout earned his first start against Stanford on Dec. 5, 2020, and finished his true freshman season with six catches and 72 yards in a COVID-impacted campaign. Odunze’s growth continued in 2021. He hauled in 41 catches for 415 yards and four touchdowns, despite coach Jimmy Lake’s offense emphasizing the run game.
Lake was relieved as coach before the 2021 season ended, and Odunze entered the transfer portal. He eventually chose to stay at Washington under the new regime of Kalen DeBoer, but also lost Adams, who left for the same position at Oregon despite initially pledging to stay.
Odunze’s 2022 season was a revelation. Under the tutelage of Adams’ successor JaMarcus Sheppard and paired with quarterback Penix , Odunze emerged as one of the top receivers in the country.
He caught 75 passes for a conference-best 1,145 yards. Odunze joined Reggie Williams as the only UW wide receivers to register four consecutive 100-yard receiving games on Oct. 15 against Arizona, making nine catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns. Odunze and fellow wide receiver Jalen McMillan became the first Washington teammates to each have 1,000-yard receiving seasons in the same campaign, a feat Odunze repeated in 2023 with Ja’Lynn Polk.
If 2022 was Odunze’s breakout year, 2023 established him as one of the best receivers in college football. He led the country with 1,640 yards – also a UW single-season record – and was named a Biletnikoff Award finalist. He finished his career ranking second in receiving yards in program history behind Williams. Odunze is tied for third in all-time receiving touchdowns with Dante Pettis, behind only Mario Bailey and Williams.
As Washington’s bid for a perfect regular season continued, Odunze made big play after big play to keep the Huskies dream season alive. His touchdown catch with 1:38 remaining proved to be the winning score against Oregon on Oct. 14. His 33-yard touchdown against Utah on Nov. 11 was the only touchdown either team scored in the second half.
Against Oregon State in the rain on Nov. 18, Odunze converted a first down to seal the game on a back-shoulder throw by Penix. He iced the Apple Cup a week later, taking a risky reverse on fourth-and-short 23 yards for a first down to keep Washington’s College Football Playoff hopes alive and end Washington State’s bid for bowl eligibility.
Odunze’s efforts caught the eyes of NFL scouts, too. He quickly emerged as one of the top nonquarterback prospects in the 2023 draft, and performed well enough at the combine that he was able to sit out pro day.“This draft process, it’s been fun,” Odunze said March 28. “I mean it’s a long process, it’s something that takes a long time but to go up with it with my guys (McMillan and Polk), we’re all going through it. So it’s fun to be able to see us all go through the steps of it. Just enjoying it.
“This is the moments we dreamed of being in, so to be able to go through it myself and then alongside all my teammates, it’s a blessing.”
Fautanu selected by Steelers 20th
With the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, the Arizona Cardinals selected offensive tackle Paris Jackson Jr. Five picks into the second round, the Los Angeles Rams took offensive guard Steve Avila out of TCU.
So if Jackson, the top offensive tackle prospect in 2023 and one of five players at his position taken in the first round, was a top-six selection and Avila, the highest-picked interior offensive lineman, was an early second rounder, where will a player who can potentially play both positions land?
That’s the question Washington offensive lineman Troy Fautanu posed to the NFL. Now, the answer is known.
The Steelers took Fautanu with the No. 20 pick in the first round . He’s the third Washington player drafted in the first round, and the first UW offensive lineman picked in the top 32 since Kaleb McGary went to the Atlanta Falcons with the 31st overall pick in 2019.
Fautanu’s selection means Washington has three first-round draft picks for just the second time in its history. Quarterback Penix was selected by the Falcons with the eighth pick. Wide receiver Odunze went to the Bears with the next pick. Defensive tackle Danny Shelton, cornerback Marcus Peters and linebacker Shaq Thompson all went in the first round during the 2015 season, setting the program record.
The 6-4, 317-pound offensive lineman had an outstanding 2023 season. Fautanu played all 15 games for the Huskies, was a first-team All-Pac-12 selection in 2023, won the Morris Trophy as the conference’s best offensive lineman and helped anchor a unit which won the 2023 Joe Moore Award as the country’s best offensive line for the first time in program history.
It was the pinnacle of a stellar collegiate career for Fautanu. The Henderson, Nevada, native arrived at Washington as an early enrollee before the 2019 season. He was considered a four-star prospect by 247Sports composite rankings, choosing UW instead of offers from Oregon, USC, UCLA and BYU among others.
Fautanu’s versatility may have impacted his recruitment. He played both sides of the line of scrimmage for Southern Nevada preps powerhouse Liberty High School, and was recruited by some teams to play defensive line instead of offensive line.
Fautanu committed to Washington to play offensive line, however, for position coach Scott Huff.
As expected for most offensive linemen, Fautanu redshirted during the 2019 season and made his UW debut during the COVID-impacted 2020 campaign, playing four games. He appeared in nine games as a sophomore during the turbulent 2021 season.
Fautanu’s first start came in a 21-16 win against Arizona on Oct. 22 at left tackle for the injured Jaxson Kirkland.
Fautanu made two more starts for UW in 2021, filling in for Kirkland again during the 20-13 win against Stanford Oct. 30 and playing left guard during Washington’s 40-13 Apple Cup embarrassment against cross-state rivals Washington State.
Huff was retained by incoming coach DeBoer for the 2022 season, one of the few holdovers from former coach Lake’s staff, and Fautanu started the first three games as the team’s left tackle.
Kirkland returned from injury to play against Stanford Sept. 24 and the Huskies briefly moved Fautanu inside to left guard, but he returned to the tackle spot for the remainder of the season with Kirkland moving inside.
He was a second-team All-Pac-12 selection, and had the option to declare for the draft. However, Fautanu announced he’d return for another season on Dec. 19.
Fautanu’s choice proved correct.
The Huskies assembled a 14-1 season, won the Pac-12 Championship in front of his hometown crowd at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, became the first Pac-12 team to win the Sugar Bowl and made an appearance in the College Football Playoff championship game.
His 2023 performances raised his draft stock, too. FOXSports draft analyst Rob Rang said Fautanu’s frame is slightly smaller than some NFL teams prefer, but added his versatility and experience at both guard and tackle make him intriguing to any teams in need of offensive line help.
Fautanu ran a 5.01-second 40-yard dash at the combine, less than a tenth of a second off former UW teammate Roger Rosengarten, who led all offensive linemen. Fautanu’s 9-foot-5-inch broad jump and 32.5-inch vertical leap – paired with a strong outing at Washington’s pro day – kept him among the position’s elite athletes.