Editor’s note: This piece was originally published on April 14. After not being, Watson signed with his hometown, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as a free agent.
Tampa, Florida. Desmond Watson knows where it is good to go, and one of the keys to getting there does not stop on the road.
Watson, a Florida defensive liner, is unique among NFL’s Draft perspectives, if not people in general, are recorded in a huge 6 feet and 464 pounds in his professional day in Gainesville last week. That is not a typographic error, and he thought he has shown remarkable athletics for a player of his size, he understands that to have a viable future in the NFL, he must lose weight.
And among other things, that means staying in your car, wherever you go.
“Stop while driving,” Watson said when asked about the bad habits he has tried to throw. “The most important thing is to move forward, get where I need to get. There are stores and many temptations. That has helped me immensely: do not enter the service station. Pay in the bomb. Because inside, they are sandwiches and all kinds of IFE thought. Road until you get where you have to go.”
Watson’s pro day weighing made it a viral sensation for the wrong reasons-464 pounds is 20 percent heavier than the weight of the list for the largest NFL player last year, the Ravens Tack Daniel Falele, with 6 feet 8 and 380 pounds. There are no official records, but it is said that the heaviest player in the history of the League is the former Bears Tacle Aaron Gibson, who appeared in 410 pounds at the top of a race as a player that was from 1999 to 2004.
Then, the Watson approach, also more than the leg in four years of university football, is to change its diet and training habits to get better, knowing that it is a path not only for its best opportunity in the NFL, but for a healthy life in general.
“It has been like my same problem, not a problem, but my very concern through the university,” Watson said about his desire to lose weight. “I am becoming more in depth, obtaining a better understanding of the things I need to succeed at the next level. It is an interesting bone. I have done a lot about me in this process.”
He is eating better, eating peanuts and almonds. The breakfasts that used to be semolina and pancakes loaded with syrup are now tortillas with spinach and tomatoes. He is paying the bomb, as he says, hoping that every pound he throws gives the NFL team confidence to invest in his future.
Watson, who is from Plant City, just east of Tampa, was a local BUCS professional day, his first real experience with NFL coaches and coaches. The defensive rulers of Bucs Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey observed while using individual training. See, which appears in 347 pounds, is a prototype for athletics in a huge body, and he and Dexter Lawrence are the two NFL players who most observe to see how size can move quickly in football.
“Let [Vea] Know that it was my inspiration, someone I try to model my game later, “Watson said.
Watson has shown flashes or athletics. In a 2022 victory over South Carolina, the ball of an opposite corridor and a race tok was released, demolished by the current field marshal of the Saints, Spencer Rattler. Back in Tampa for their last university game when the Gats faced Tulane in his bowl game in December, Watson had the multitude of foot, won a cameo in the offensive field as a Jumbo fullback and took place in third and 1, rumbled. The coach of the Gators, Billy Napier, called him “a unicorn”, the type of player you could see once in a complete training race.
And although the weight got the headlines on their professional day last week, he also put another print number. He recorded a 25 -inch vertical leap, better than some defensive cups in this Draft class, so he makes 150 pounds less. In the Banking Press, it had 36 repetitions at 225 pounds, which are three repetitions more than any of the more than 300 participants in the NFL combine training.
“He has athletic ability that I can’t explain,” said Evan Davis, his chief coach in Armwood High in Seffner, Florida. “What caught me, we were doing squats on top, and he holds the ribbon in 185 pounds on his head, and he can squat and his butt touches the ground and he rises again and makes repetitions. I am an athletic ability.” But it does. “
There is also a big heart there. Hello no. 21 In Florida was the number used by his younger brother, Dyson, who suffered a stroke at 5 years. He is from a family of athletes: his mother was a sprinter, an older brother, Darrian McNeal, 16-Founds) and Free Freever and Lounge-Freever) and Eagons and Loungers) and Ergoiver and Receiver and Yegonver) and Eagonver and receipt and Yegonver, Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegon Yegonver, Yeguonver and Yegonver and Yegever, Yegonver and Yegonver and Yegonver, Yegonver, Yeguonver, Yeguonver, Yeguonver, Yeguonver, Yeguonver, Yeguonver, Yeguonver, intermediate blocker in Pasco-Hernando State College. He had the parents and eight assisted brothers for his latest university game in Tampa.
Because, just a little, losing weight is nothing new to Watson. When he signed with the GATS in 2021, the then trained, Mullen, joked saying that he was grateful that they had equipment to measure their weight in 440 pounds, saying: “He has to lose, you know, you can, likely, like a 12 -year -old boy.”
That battle is ongoing. Do not blame the GATS, saying that they tried to give him many measures and opportunities to get better, and did a good job taking advantage, stay focused and achieve a real change.
There is the possibility that an NFL team can shoot in Watson with a draft selection of the late round, but if not, it is in good position to land on a list of 90 men as an unseated free agent. That would give him four months to work with NFL coaches and nutritionists, to improve his body while learning in the field. A place of development in a practice team would be a small investment for the NFL team, a full year there, pays $ 234,000, and is only 22 years old, so within a year, it would still be younger than many draft selections this year.
Watson said he has tried to treat his diet as an addiction, take it serious, not take days off, concentrate on a better life.
“It’s definitely difficult,” he said. “People have taught me to look at it as another addiction. They are not drugs, but it is addictive, be it games, drugs, alcohol. I think this is my vice. I’m just trying to get it. Life.”
He is making changes to what he eats, to avoid bad choices, but said the biggest difference is in his mind.
“I think it’s more a mental thing, training to eat better, make better habits to maintain life and football,” he said. “I opened my eyes to see that I can satisfy myself with better things, so as not to have a negative effect on me.”
Greg Auman is an NFL reporter for Fox Sports. Previously a decade passed by covering the Bucaneros For him Tampa Bay Times and Atlético. You can follow it on Twitter in @Gregaman.
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