Patience was a virtue for Denzel Boston. He spent the first two seasons of his college career biding his time behind one of the deepest receiving corps in college football. Then, even after losing head coach Kalen DeBoer to Alabama, he stayed at Washington to help guide his hometown Huskies to prominence.
Along the way, he became a potential first round draft pick.
That commitment and devotion helped make him a big play machine set to star on Sundays. Now he's here to talk about that journey — and what comes next.
Boston partnered with PayPal to knock out some pre-draft interviews and showcase his new sponsorship with a brand that's been around for (prepare to feel old) his entire life. Here's what he had to say about questions about his separation skills, how he connects with his quarterbacks and why you should draft his Washington teammates.
"I don't think there's a difference to the way I view it. The only thing that you have to be aware of is, I feel like, go balls on the outside. Especially I feel like from a left-handed quarterback it's going to feel different coming over your head versus a right-handed quarterback. But when Mike was there, we switched the jug machine to spin lefty so then we get a better understanding of the torque of the ball and everything. But no, doesn't change the way I view quarterbacks at all.
"For me, it is just the ball coming out of the quarterback's hand. It's not nothing that's special about it, you know what I mean? It's just go catch that rock."
"[Washington] had a standard in the room and for me it was, I got to be that standard. Rome [Odunze] goes down, I'm the next guy up, so I need to be able to go run that.
"We had a saying, it's a 42.6 or something like that. It was a good [4 x 100m] relay time at the end the day... It was basically saying that no matter who's in the game, we still got to run that relay time. So for me, every day it was just being able to be around those guys, learn, soak up what I can and have an understanding that if one goes down I got to be ready to go run that good time.
"It comes down to the relationships that I built in that building and the community that I had around me being able to be a hometown dog, [which was] something very special to me. And not only that, the standard that they set in the room, once again, I didn't want that to die off because we had our whole room. We also had Germie Bernard, you had Giles Jackson and me under those three. So I wanted to stick it out, continue, continue that standard and continue to just try and produce good receivers coming out of Washington and start a new trend."
"That comes from the preparation and the training before the game. I feel you reap the benefits of the work that you put in before. So preparing yourself for those moments, making sure that you're getting all those reps in practice and getting every angle of catch just keeps you. And also keeping that hand eye coordination. For me it was tennis ball machines. I think that's what really benefited me to be able to make those plays.
"We would do [45-pound] plate holds with our fingertips. Also ,the rice bucket. Got to get in that rice bucket [to strengthen grip].
"[Between] practice, weight room, film study? We got to go at least close to 60 hours to put all that stuff together. I mean I remember this last year I was in the facility getting there at about 7:00 AM not leaving until about nine, 9:30 PM So that whole time it's taking care of my body. We have practice meetings and then also just extracurricular meetings, whether I'm bringing the receivers along to get some extra meetings or me and the quarterback and the other receivers and tight ends are meeting.
"So yeah, a lot of hours. I'll definitely put 60 on there for sure."
"High long post. I'll stake money on that."
"For me, well me and Demond, we used to always be in the film room together. We used to always be with each other. Even in game, we're sitting there on the iPad: 'Hey, this is what I see when I'm rolling out this way. I want you to go here' watching film.
"Seeing where defenses, where they're lacking, where they're slacking. When it comes to the scramble drill and understanding where the open pockets are going to be, that's what gets me prepared for those moments and be able to make those plays."
"Once I got the opportunity to work with PayPal, [I was] super excited. I used PayPal. That's my way of sending money to my family, my friends, and even they got the pool feature on PayPal where say you got a tailgate or you got some type of party going on and you don't know people are going to send you money back.
"You just make a pool. Everyone pours into that pool and you guys pay with that pool of money. So all those different features that PayPal has to offer is just a great way to be able to utilize it and that's what makes me so excited to work with PayPal."
"Ephesians Prysock. One, he plays his size. He's a six-foot-four corner. Lengthy. He's got speed. He's very patient. He knows how to sit on routes and not only that, he can move.
"He has great recovery speed if he is beat, he's always around the ball and he's always around the ball. That's one thing about Effy as well. He's a ball magnet. That's why I think a team should bet on him."