2026 NFL Draft: Denzel Boston is the next NFL WR from the Washington pipeline

College & Draft Sports

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• Boston is set to become Washington’s latest top wide receiver draft pick: Following in Rome Odunze’s and Ja’Lynn Polk’s footsteps, Boston is on track to be a top-100 selection in the 2026 NFL Draft.

• Rebounding from a quiet end to 2024: Among the few negatives on Boston’s profile is his lackluster production to cap the 2024 campaign after a hot start. How he responds in 2025 will be something to watch.

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Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

The Washington Huskies football program had its fingerprints all over the 2024 NFL Draft. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. went No. 8 overall, and wide receiver Rome Odunze came off the board soon after at No. 9. Later, Ja’Lynn Polk and Jalen McMillan were picked in the top 100.

Fast-forward a year, and another Washington receiver — one who patiently waited behind some of those players to showcase his skillset — is making headlines. Denzel Boston, in just his first year as a full-time starter in 2024, flashed true NFL ability and enters the 2025 season as a top-five wide receiver overall in my early rankings, as well as my No. 1 X receiver.

Boston was a three-star recruit in the 2022 class. He played sparingly behind Washington’s trio of future NFL receivers in 2022 and 2023 but logged more than 750 receiving snaps in 2024 and earned a 77.5 PFF receiving grade on the season. 

At 6-foot-4 and 209 pounds, Boston ranks in the 91st percentile in height and the 68th percentile in weight among NFL wideouts. He played 707 snaps out wide and 68 snaps in the slot in 2024. He placed just above the 88th percentile in PFF Game Athleticism Score in 2023, albeit on a small sample size, before upping that mark in 2024 on more snaps to nearly the 93rd percentile. Boston’s top speed isn’t a calling card of his game, as he went past 20 mph on just three plays last season, but he was consistently fast overall, racking up 205 plays where he was clocked between 15-20 mph.

For now, Boston’s stats don’t jump out. He did log 834 receiving yards with a team-high nine receiving touchdowns in 2024, but eight scores came in the first six weeks of the season. In the second half of the campaign, he recorded fewer than 50 receiving yards in six of his final seven outings. That could be a product of defenses keying in on him after his hot start. How Boston responds will be something to monitor in 2025.

Denzel Boston’s 2024 PFF Game Grades

It’s the talent on film rather than the numbers that impresses me, though. For a big receiver, Boston is not slow out of his stance and eats up cushion quickly against off coverage. He also has decent sharpness in his route cut, and will even pull some double moves on unsuspecting defenders. He brings reliable hands, hauling in 95.6% of his catchable targets (104) and recording a strong 52.2% contested-catch rate (25 targets).

Boston maximizes his big catch radius with strong hands and good hand-eye coordination, and he has an after-the-catch mentality, notching 333 receiving yards after the catch on 837 total yards. Perhaps even more impressive than his strengths are his few true weaknesses. Outside of Boston’s production dip once defenses paid him extra attention, he put little on tape to suggest he won’t be a quality NFL receiver. That’s not to say he was perfect, but his early scouting profile doesn’t feature a lot of roadblocks — only areas where he could be more consistent.

Boston had to wait his turn behind three future top-100 draft picks, but now he is proving to be one himself, perhaps as the best X receiver in the 2026 NFL Draft class. 

This news was originally published on this post .

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