Denzel Boston: The Rome Odunze Replacement
King Kong ain't got shit on me.
- Denzel Washington, Training Day (2001)
How on earth is UW going to replace Rome ‘King Kong’ Odunze you ask? Well, while his uncle (or somebody related to Odunze, I’m not sure) ranted endlessly on Twitter that Odunze was the superior receiver to the son of former NFLer— Marvin Harrison, throughout the entirety of the draft process, another son of a former NFL receiver will be aiming to replace Odunze this season.
In case you missed it, third year player Denzel ‘Alonzo’ Boston is having a good spring. Here is a note from the spring game recaps:
While the offense sputtered at times, they also found some room to work and a big benefactor was wide receiver Denzel Boston who had a big night, grabbing seven receptions for 127 yards and a touchdown.
Boston, one of the breakout players of the spring from the start of practices at the beginning of April, was the only real consistent threat for the Huskies on offense Friday night. He grabbed a 43-yard touchdown from Purcell who laid the ball out perfectly on a seam route and then caught a 28-yard touchdown from Rogers where he got Leroy Bryant turned around.
Seven receptions for 127 yards and a score is not too bad. Not bad at all. But that’s just a spring game, now we want to know: has the drumbeat been consistent throughout the spring? The answer to this question is yes. Here’s another note:
One of the players who stood out this Spring at Washington was wide receiver Denzel Boston. The third-year sophomore played in eight games last season, registering only five catches for 51 yards. But what he showed in the month of April indicates that he’s ready to step into the wide receiver 1 position for the Huskies this fall.
Nobody is expecting much from UW this year—and truth be told I'm not expecting much either—but from an individual standpoint, it sounds like Boston could be in a for a huge season. So where shall we start? (wink wink)
Coaching & System
WR1 PPG AVERAGE: 15.471
Luckily for me there’s no need to specify which coach’s averages are being used above because both the head coach and offensive coordinator have been attached at the hip during the sample of data these numbers are pulling from. New UW head coach Jedd Fisch and his OC Brennan Carroll both come over from Arizona after spending three seasons in Tucson. Fisch was infamously blocked from bringing over his Louis by AU’s most prominent booster, but he will still have some tools to work with at the skill positions.
Despite Humberto Lopez’ best efforts, Fisch managed to poach RB Jonah Coleman from AU, and also brought in former Mississippi State QB Will Rogers. However, the player who might be his best this year is at WR, and he was already on the roster— Denzel Boston.
Historically, Fisch’s WR1 is a hot commodity in CFF. Looking at the target share numbers, it’s not hard to see why. The lowest target share Fisch’s WR1 has seen over the last three seasons is 26.3%, and they all averaged over 10 targets per game. Boston is probably going to be that player for UW in 2024.
The staff has spent most of their coaching years in the NFL, so the patterns beyond what you see in the table above are more difficult to trust. The last CFB program Fisch was at was UCLA in 2017 where he served as the OC before being promoted to interim HC. That season Jordan Lasley led the Bruins with 69 catches for 1264 yards and nine TDs.
Before UCLA he was at Michigan (QB/WR/PGC 2015-16), where the Wolverines did not have a 1000-yard receiver in either season. Neither did his two seasons spent as OC at Miami (2011-12).
In terms of team pace, Fisch’s programs are typically average. In 2023, the Wildcats ranked 60th in the FBS with 25.8 seconds per play run, and 27.7 and 26.8 seconds per play during the two previous seasons, respectively. Ideally you’d like to see a fast moving system with an ironclad track record of 1000-yard receivers. Fisch’s system is still pretty good due to the historical target share that the WR1 sees.
Denzel Boston (6’4, 200)
2023 STATS: 5 (8) - 51 - 0 (0.7 PPG)
Denzel, son of David, is entering his third year of CFB. The former three star prospect out of WA joined the program in the class of 2022. He has yet to make a mark in the collegiate game, totalling seven receptions for his career thus far, but it sounds like that’s going to change in the year of 2024. Here’s the WRs coach on Boston:
He’s the ultimate competitor… He loves to go out there. Every rep to him is the most important one. So there’s no plays off. Every time he’s out there, he’s playing for speed and I think that gives him a really good chance.
And here’s a quote from the man himself:
I feel waiting behind those guys was the best thing for me to do and to stay patient and stay here . . . This is the time that’s been coming. And I’ve decided to take what I can from the opportunity.
Boston’s definitely got some Odunze to him in that he’s a big, lengthy body. One of the issues that held Odunze back early on was that he needed to put on some muscle and learn how to play through contact. This has been a similar problem for Boston, however it sounds like he has taken steps to address this issue:
Boston said that he feels he’s stepped up his ability to run through contact since last season. He has put on more weight and added muscle since the 2023 season. That physical change has made Boston a more difficult receiver to defend. It’s also allowed him to win a lot of those 50/50 battles for the football against the defender.
Boston was a reliable target of Rogers and Demond Williams Jr. all Spring. His versatility and strength as a pass catcher will make him a go-to for this offense during the season this fall.
Fantastic. I know Demond Williams is a very talented QB but I’m just going to assume that Rogers will be the starter this season. From that lens, it’s good that Boston and he have shown good rapport in spring practice:
Boston was a favorite target of quarterback Will Rogers III during the 11-on-11 sessions at Spring practice. And one of the route patterns we saw a lot from him was the vertical route.
Closing
There are numerous concerns with Boston’s CFF profile. The first is that we don’t know how effective UW is going to be on offence as a whole. They return almost zero snaps on the OL, they are working in a new QB, new coaching staff, virtually all new faces at WR with the exception of Giles Jackson, and they will be playing in a different (probably harder) conference.
The second concern is that Boston is a pure projection profile as he has little to no production in his career thus far. We also don’t know how Rogers will look as the last we saw of him wasn’t pretty.
So while Boston’s got some Odunze to his profile with his height and length, Will Rogers probably isn’t going to light up CFB like Penix did. Odunze was also a higher rated prospect coming out of high school, and when you look at his season before his breakout year two seasons ago, Odunze caught 41 passes for 415 yards and four scores compared to Boston’s 51 yards last year.
For the reasons outlined above, Boston is the perfect late round receiver in my opinion. His current ADP according to Campus2Canton is NA, suggesting that he’s still going under the radar. ◾
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Half PPR, sample size: 2018-23.