The Washington Huskies football team is in its first game week of the 2026-27 season and will kick off a year ripe with expectations in the Apple Cup against the Washington State Cougars at 1 p.m. PT on Sunday at Husky Stadium in Seattle.

The Huskies released their depth chart for the game against the Cougars on Monday. On the offensive side of the ball, the starters lined up with earlier projections made on Huskies Roundtable in an article Monday morning.

The depth chart included starters on the defensive side of the ball, as well.

Here's an overview of Washington's projected starters for the Apple Cup:

Lane will enter this season as the premier edge rusher on the Huskies defensive line following a solid season 2025.

The Puyallup, Wash., native played in all 13 games last season and finished the season with 41 total tackles (23 solo), including 8.5 tackles for loss and four sacks and two passes defended.

Davis is another veteran player who played in all 13 games for UW last season. He's coming off an incredible offseason where he was among the best performers for the team in spring and fall practice.

Last season, Davis had 29 total tackles (18 solo), including a half-tackle for loss and a half-sack and two passes defended.

Washington will have several first-year players either start or receive significant reps this season, and Colman-Brusa will be one of the beneficiaries of that.

Colman-Brusa, a four-star recruit in the Class of 2026, has received first team reps since the start of spring practice and has been tested on the interior, constantly lining up against 2025 True Freshman All-American John Mills.

Fruean is another first-year player set to start on the defensive line this upcoming season.

The four-star '26 recruit, unlike Colman-Brusa and fellow first-year and starting left tackle Kodi Greene, started running with the backups and was originally anticipated to be an outside linebacker.

Fruean, who often outpaces his fellow linemen (offensive and defensive) in conditioning, was moved to edge rusher later in the spring and ended getting reps with the first team and began training camp as a starter.

There are two positions on defense that don't have a clear-cut starter for Sunday, one of them being one of the two linebacker spots in defensive coordinator Ryan Walters' base defense.

Rainey-Sale, who missed most of last season with an injury, has been healthy the majority of the offseason and has added size in addition to his top-end speed.

Xe'ree Alexander has been half-speed for the final practices of training camp and has donned a gold shirt for those sessions, but is coming off a solid ending to 2025, where he was named the defensive MVP in the Los Angeles Bowl.

While it's still not certain who will get the starting reps between Rainey-Sale or Alexander in the Apple Cup, head coach Jedd Fisch was emphatic in who would be the team's other starting linebacker in a news conference Monday.

"Right now, Jacob Manu has solidified himself as the starting linebacker for the first game of the year," Fisch said Monday. "He makes everybody around him better."

Nickelback is the second position on the defense that still doesn't have a set starter for Sunday.

Clark, who's also first on the depth chart at punt and kick returner, missed all of spring and Jones stepped in admirably for the veteran. Jones was signed out as one of the top performers of training camp by Fisch earlier this offseason.

With Clark healthy for training camp, Jones moved outside and received a significant amount of reps with the starters with second-year cornerback Dylan Robinson out for the majority of the summer practices.

At the UW Pro Day in the spring, now-pro cornerbacks Ephesians Prysock (San Francisco 49ers) and Tacario Davis (Cincinnati Bengals) identified Robinson as the next man up in the cornerback room.

Despite his aforementioned absence for the majority of training camp, Robinson has met the expectations that his former teammates had for him, and has been described as a future NFL draft pick by his coaches.

Lining up opposite of Robinson will Karnley, who has been one of the most consistent performers for the Huskies throughout the offseason.

In his offseason with Washington, Karnley has matched the competitive nature of the rest of the team and has often gone toe-to-toe with the team's wide receivers.

McLaughlin was one of the most surprising players on Washington last season after transferring in from Northern Arizona of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). He was named a captain of the defense this offseason and has looked the part in the offseason, coming up with several interceptions.

Dillard-Allen is coming off a successful freshman season where he played in all 13 games and started three. He's been one of the most competitive players of training camp and, like the rest of the team's secondary, has gone toe-to-toe with the rest of the team's wide receiver room.