Watson’s weight increased from the high 300s to its current mark during his four seasons at Florida, but he never missed a game and finished his Gator days with 63 tackles, four tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one pass defensed. He also jacked up 36 bench press reps at that aforementioned Pro Day, more than any prospect logged at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine. He knows there may be people who are skeptical of his chances to stick in the NFL because of his size, but he doesn’t spend much time worrying about that.
“I really try not to pay attention to it,” he said. “I try to focus on what I’m good at and get better at the things I’m not good at. If there is, hopefully, I can prove them wrong in the future.”
Helping to draw even more attention to the Bucs’ signing of Watson was that it came right on the heels of the team using their final draft pick on Oregon wide receiver Tez Johnson, who at 154 pounds is now the lighest player in the NFL. That combination of facts (and images) quickly made the rounds on social media, and both Watson and Johnson saw it repeatedly. The two have since talked about it since arriving as new teammates at the AdventHealth Training Center, and Watson actually likes what it says about the game he loves.
“I think that just goes to show how good a sport that football is.” He said. “You’ve got a person that’s his size and a person that’s my size on the same field. It’s good to see. I think that’s one of the things that makes football the best sport, to me personally. It’s just nice to be able to see the variety of different people, different personalities, different backgrounds, and even different sizes.”
Watson played his prep football at Armwood High School in the Tampa Bay area and then, as noted, played in college at Florida before coming back home to get his first crack at the NFL. That’s part of the reason why he seems to be smiling a lot these days.
“I was having a conversation, maybe a couple days ago, like, ‘My life feels like a movie.’ You couldn’t write the script where a person goes from Little League to high school to college [to the pros] without having to move out of the state. One of the coaches was messing with me the other day because I’ve still never seen snow.
“I’m happy. This is a dream come true. I can’t do anything but smile.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
