Washington tight end Devin Culp had always had the athletic ability to be an elite tight end.  Now, entering his final year in the Purple and Gold, he finally looks to be an integral piece of the Huskies’ offensive puzzle.

His physique has fluctuated with 3 offensive philosophies he’s been a part of.

The knock on the Spokane-native has been that he’s made many difficult catches look routine while dropping simple catches.

Between Josh Cuevas, Ryan Otton, Jack Westover, and Quentin Moore the Huskies have many options, but perhaps none with Culp’s ability.

This past spring, his hands looked softer than ever, snagging several short-range passes from either Morris or Penix, midrange passes and most anything in between.

He’s always looked the part of whatever type offense was in front of him, adjusting his weight accordingly.  He’s been an H-Back TE, a blocking TE, but not what’s probably what he’s best-suited as a pass-catching TE.

A starter of 16 games in his career, including 11 of UW’s 13 games last season, his current weight of 237 is lighter now than at any time since his arrival in 2018.

He weighed 232 pounds his RS freshman year but grew to 262 when he was viewed as an H-back TE.   Since high school he’s also grown to 6-4 from 6-3.

He’s always been an athlete. At Spokane’s Gonzaga Prep he was viewed as the nation’s number 98 receiver.  He also helped lead his HS team to a state title in basketball.

Now, in his 6th year he looked like the athletic marvel he was in 2018–and now his hands have finally caught back up with his body.

Culp has been asked to change with the times as the team has changed hands between Chris Petersen, Jimmy Lake and now Kalen DeBoer.   Culp’s body type for the three types of offensive schemes has changed, as well.

He arrived at 6-3, 232 and jumped up to 262 the next year.  He was 245 for the 4-game season in 2020.  The next 3 years his weight went to 250, then down to 239 to his current weight of 236.

The former 4-star pass catcher is 2 inches taller than Hunter Bryant in his final year at UW.  With the ball in his hands at his new weight Culp can be equally nightmarish for defenses—especially when his Heisman candidate QB Michael Penix has full confidence in Culp’s hands.

Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has a lot of mouths to feed, so I don’t expect that Culp will get close to the 52 catches for 825 yards that Bryant had in 2019, but I could see Grubb scheming at least the 3 TDs that Bryant had that year.

RealProjection:  28 catches, 450 yards 5 TDs.