DT Levi Onwuzurike Declares for 2021 NFL Draft

With the progress made in the last day towards having a Pac-12 season it seemed that there was a chance teams might be welcoming back more talent rather than watching it leave. However, Levi Onwuzurike released a video this morning in which he declared for the 2021 NFL Draft.

The timing is undoubtedly strange given the strides the conference made towards playing games this fall. However, given that timing it seems even more likely that he is confident in that decision and that a partial season this fall doesn’t change it.

The 6’3 288 lb Onwuzurike came to Washington as the highest ranked recruit the Huskies have been able to pull out of Texas in a long time. He flashed very quickly alongside guys like Vita Vea and Greg Gaines and put it all together last year even when often playing slightly out of position at nose tackle.

Levi was named 1st team all Pac-12 for his play a season ago. He finishes his Husky career with 95 tackles and 7 sacks. Many analysts believed that Onwuzurike would be somewhere between a 2nd and 4th round draft pick (with an outside chance at the 1st round) although we’ll see how that changes without adding more tape.

Washington is loaded with young talent along the defensive line but the loss of Onwuzurike clearly hurts. He was expected to start alongside 6th year senior Josiah Bronson. Now the Dawgs will likely put Bronson alongside redshirt sophomore Tuli Letuligasenoa with Taki Taimani as 3rd on the depth chart and redshirt freshmen Faatui Tuitele, Jacob Bandes, and Noa Ngalu also fighting for playing time.

Best of luck to Levi as he pursues his NFL dreams but given the optimism of the last 12+ hours this one definitely stings. We still love you Levi.