KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- D'Wayne Eskridge will move from Western to the Pacific Northwest to continue his football career.
The Western Michigan football product was a second-round pick (56th overall) of the Seattle Seahawks in the NFL Draft on Friday, April 30. He was Seattle's first pick of this year's draft.
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Eskridge becomes the 52nd Western Michigan player taken in the NFL and AFL drafts, as well as the ninth Bronco selected since 2016 (including one supplemental pick). WMU has now produced seven picks in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft since the year 2000, most in the Mid-American Conference (the rest of the league combined has 12 and no other school has more than four).
Eskridge was the 2020 MAC Special Teams Player of the Year and a first team All-MAC selection at both receiver and returner. In addition to being named a second team All-American by the Football Writers Association fo America, he was one of five finalists, and the only Group of Five finalist, for the Paul Hornung Award, given to the most versatile player in the nation.Â
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The Bluffton, Indiana, native led FBS in all-purpose yards per game (213.0) and was the only player in the nation to average more than 200 all-purpose yards per contest. He capped the regular season with 130.7 receiving yards per game, fourth in FBS and tops in the MAC. His eight receiving TDs led the MAC and ranked 16th nationally at the end of the regular season, while his 77.8 kickoff returns yards were fifth in FBS and led the MAC at the end of the regular season. In 2020, he was one of just 11 players in FBS with three or more kickoff returns of at least 40 yards.
Eskridge becomes the highest WMU draft pick since fellow receiver Corey Davis went fifth overall to the Tennessee Titans in 2017. Eskridge is the fifth Bronco wide receiver to be drafted and WMU has now had a receiver selected in three of the last six drafts. This marks the first time Seattle has drafted a Western Michigan product and it's the first time a Bronco has been drafted by an NFC West team since Terry Crews was selected by the LA Rams in 1991.
