WOOF: Washington Adds Pitt Transfer LB

Washington picked up a major piece for their defense today when Pittsburgh LB transfer Cam Bright committed to the Huskies. Bright was a team captain for Pitt who had one of their best seasons in a long time winning the ACC championship in 2021.

The 6’0, 220 pound linebacker originally from Alabama was a 3-year starter at Pittsburgh and will be taking advantage of his 6th year of eligibility from the 2020 pandemic mulligan as a grad transfer at Washington. The Huskies are perilously thin at the linebacker spot after they lost Will Latu, Miki Ah You, MJ Tafisi, and Jackson Sirmon since the start of fall camp.

This past season Bright had 58 tackles, 19 QB pressures, 3.5 sacks, and 1 interception for the Panthers as an outside linebacker in their 4-3 defense. That required a lot of versatility from Bright who according to Pro Football Focus played a little over half of his snaps in the box, ~30% in the slot, and ~20% along the defensive line. PFF viewed it as a down year for Bright but in 2019 and 2020 had him with a 75.0+ grade which generally suggests play in contention for all-conference honors. That’s why PFF had him on their preseason all-ACC 1st team as the best off ball linebacker in the conference back in June.

With the Huskies’ new defense it’s unclear exactly what Bright’s primary position will be although the assumption is that he will serve as a middle linebacker alongside Edefuan Ulofoshio. Washington did lose outside linebacker Cooper McDonald to transfer but have much more depth at their EDGE spot with Zion Tuputola-Fetui, Bralen Trice, Jeremiah Martin, and Sav’ell Smalls all returning. Carson Bruener showed flashes and Daniel Heimuli has talent but the ILB rotation looks a lot deeper if they are your 3rd/4th guys rather than 2nd/3rd.

For his career Bright has 182 tackles and 20.5 tackle for loss so he has the versatility to play along the line of scrimmage if needed as well as blitz from the linebacker spot. He also isn’t terrible in coverage as opposing QBs have thrown for 5.8 yards per attempt with 1 TD and 1 INT when targeting Bright’s man.

Bright becomes the 5th addition to the roster through the transfer portal this offseason for Washington.