An Early Offensive Depth Chart

In the absence of anything completely newsworthy outside of recruiting the past few days, thought I might try my hand at predicting the Washington Huskies depth chart.

I'll profile each side of the ball in two separate posts.

Some positions are pretty easy to predict, like Jake Locker at quarterback. While others are incredibly difficult to predict, like offensive line and cornerback. Head coach Steve Sarkisian will have his hands full this fall trying to figure some of these out.

So here is what I think the offensive depth chart will look like next year:

• Quarterback - Jake Locker/Ronnie Fouch
• Running Back - Chris Polk/Willie Griffin
• Full Back - Paul Homer/Austin Sylvester
• Wide Receiver - D'Andre Goodwin/Anthony Boyles
• Wide Receiver - Jermaine Kearse/Devin Aguilar
• Wide Receiver - Jordan Polk/Cody Bruns
  
• Tight End - Chris Izbicki and Kavario Middleton (Expect Sarkisian to use a lot of two tight end sets)
• Left Tackle - Cody Habben/Mark Armelin
• Left Guard - Ben Ossai/(this is a position in flux to be certain)
• Center - Ryan Tolar/Mykenna Ikehara
• Right Guard - Senio Kelemete/Morgan Rosborough
• Right Tackle - Drew Schaefer/Skyler Fancher

Essentially there isn't too much surprise, but I threw in a couple surprising picks for starters just based on what I saw in spring. Does anyone expect Ronnie Fouch to unseat Jake Locker this fall? Austin Sylvester to unseat Paul Homer at fullback?

I think easily one of the most contraversial picks is that of Jordan Polk at wide-receiver rather than, say, Devin Aguilar. However, Polk was one of the most improved performers in my book, and showed some of the most drive out of all the receivers.

D'Andre Goodwin and Jermain Kearse are the other two locks at the position just based on their skillsets. Goodwin is a solid hands receiver with good run after the catch ability; while Kearse has shown excellent ability on the long passes.

I would say that the receiving corps has a lot of promise in the coming months. New recruit James Johnson is also highly regarded and could make a strong case for playing time this fall.

The Running Back slot is most likely going to be shouldered by Chris Polk, and I would go so far as to say the staff have him penciled in in the first slot. Griffin is good, but there are connections between Polk and Sarkisian going back to the recruiting phase when he originally was going to go to USC.

The offensive line, though, is the hardest to pick.

I'm going to say right now, that while the staff is high on Mykenna Ikehara at center, they go with experience in Ryan Tolar.

Ben Ossai and Cody Habben have gametime experience and are used to playing together on the line, so I think they are going to get the right side spots.

The left side, however, is anyone's game. No one has gametime experience on that side of the ball (Senio Kelemete played on the defensive line last year) and the chemistry may or may not be there.

For the purposes of this article I took Sarkisian at his word with the official depth chart. The play of the offensive line was adequate, but it is such a subtly nuanced position that it's tough for me to make the most of my spring judgements.

The real test for the offense will be how well they mesh together under the new offensive scheme. I wouldn't be surprised if it may be a mess during the first game or two, with mistakes inevitably going to happen.

I do think, though, that the team has the talent to really shine if given the opportunity too, they just need someone to bring it out.

Plus, they desperately need that next win to have something to bond around.