Greg Gaines Joins Rams in 4th Round of NFL Draft

Former Washington Husky Greg Gaines has been taken by the Los Angeles Rams with the 32nd pick in the 4th round (134th overall). He joins Taylor Rapp on the reigning NFC champions who was taken in the 2nd round. This is the 3rd consecutive season and 4th of 5 years where a Washington defensive tackle has been drafted. And yet somehow UW went consecutive years without being able to recruit one...

Gaines has been a multi-year standout on the Husky defensive line while playing alongside such other studs as Elijah Qualls and Vita Vea before anchoring the line this season. He’s not much of a pass rusher but consistently demands a double team and freed up room for teammates to make tackles. The highlight of Gaines’ Washington career occurred this year when he came up with a diving finger tips interception against Stanford. Gaines won the 2018 Morris Trophy awarded to the best Pac-12 defensive lineman as voted by his peers.

This will be an interesting opportunity for Gaines as he’ll be able to play alongside DT Aaron Donald who is probably the best defensive player in the NFL. The Rams moved on from Ndamukong Suh this offseason which means Gaines will likely compete with Michael Brockers for the starting nose tackle spot.

This is somewhat bittersweet for Husky fans as now the following players are divisional opponents for the local Seattle Seahawks: Gaines, Rapp, Byron Murphy, Zeke Turner, Budda Baker, Marcus Peters, Cory Littleton, and Dante Pettis.

Congrats to Taylor and we look forward to seeing him represent the UW in the NFL for many years to come!