SEATTLE — Given the stakes and the stage, Michael Penix Jr.’s masterful display in the Washington Huskies’ 37-31 College Football Playoff victory over Texas in the Sugar Bowl might rank as the No. 1 individual performance in Husky history.

Washington has a proud lineage of quarterbacks, and what Penix did against Texas — completing 29 of 38 passes for 430 yards and two touchdowns, lifting the Huskies into the national championship game against Michigan — puts him, at the very least, right in line with the best performances from the best quarterbacks the Huskies have had.

Beyond the context of how Penix stacks up in program history, his performance Monday puts him in rare air in recent college football history.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a college kid throw the ball better in a game than what I saw from Penix,” ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky said on the ‘Pat McAfee Show’ Tuesday. “It was just perfect throw after perfect throw.”

Penix, a Heisman runner-up, was so good against Texas that he had many rethinking their initial impressions of UW’s left-handed QB. That included some NFL talent evaluators, one of whom said he could see Penix emerge as a top-10 prospect entering the NFL draft in April.

“I have him high on my board. Very high,” one AFC scout told The Seattle Times.

Longtime NFL executive Randy Mueller agreed.

“He is much more polished than people realized,” Mueller said. “He’s asked to do a lot in that offense — all the shifts and motions and protections. And all that stuff he’s going to have to do in the NFL, so it’s good stuff for scouts to see.”

Many are projecting the Seahawks, with the 33-year-old Geno Smith as their starting quarterback now, to use a high draft pick to find a development QB. Could Penix be a fit?

“I would think so, for sure,” Mueller said. “Seattle is going to have to look at some point for someone for the future.”

One NFC scout noted the one significant hesitant all NFL teams will likely have about Penix: his well-documented injury history. At Indiana, Penix had three season-ending injuries, and Mueller expects that means Penix will go through a rigorous series of medical evaluations in the buildup to the NFL draft — as rigorous as anyone has experienced.

Ultimately, though, Mueller said Penix might be the most NFL-ready QB of anyone in this draft class. “His overall body of work is so complete in this system — and that system matters — that it makes it easy (for scouts) to warm up to his uniqueness,” he said.