Washington football owns the Defensive Player of the Week in the Pac-12, and arguably the National Defensive Player of the Week in week three
After not forcing any turnovers through the first two weeks, Washington football showed up in a big way, snagging three interceptions against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in week three, two of them coming from senior safety Myles Bryant. Along with those two picks, which brought his career total to three, Bryant also recorded the team’s only sack and four total tackles. Not bad for a guy a lot of people deemed too short right?
Bryant came to campus in 2016 as a walk on out of Loyola High School in Los Angeles, California, instead of taking offers from Pac-12 schools Colorado and UCLA. He earned a spot, and even found playing time in 11 games during the Huskies’ run to the College Football Playoffs. In 2017, Bryant earned his spot as the starting nickelback, and was named an All Pac-12 honorable mention, and made his way on to the All Pac-12 second team in 2018.
This year, Bryant is facing the challenge of playing a new position, moving from nickelback to safety, and was named to the preseason All-Pac 12 first team. He seems to be handling the move in stride, as he’s currently third on the team in tackles, and (well, obviously) first in interceptions.
2019 is going to be a huge year for Bryant, who most expect to make the leap to the NFL in the 2020 NFL Draft. If he can continue to prove himself, there’s no way an NFL team won’t take a chance on him in the later rounds, and with Bryant being the hard-worker and competitor that he is, he’d definitely earn his way on to an NFL roster.
Congratulations to Myles on earning Defensive Player of the Week, and hopefully there are more in his future! After the day he had on Saturday, he should also be in consideration for National Defensive Player of the Week.