The defensive tackle is one of the most intriguing prospects in this year\u2019s draft. But the attributes that make him stand out could also be his downfall<\/p>\n
Desmond Watson is pro football\u2019s next very<\/em> big thing: a 6ft 6in, 464lb defensive tackle who is poised to become the heaviest player ever selected at the NFL draft, which takes place later this month. \u201cHe\u2019s a unicorn,\u201d his coach at Florida, Billy Napier, said last month. \u201cYou\u2019ll go the rest of your career, and you\u2019ll never be around a guy that\u2019s that stature.<\/p>\n A native of Plant City, Florida, the state\u2019s strawberry capital, Watson was the Gators\u2019 big man on campus, a larger-than-life folk hero to match the school\u2019s 7ft 9in basketball prospect<\/a>. When Watson arrived at college, he already weighed 440lb \u2013 or about as much as a standup piano. Watson\u2019s legend grew once he cracked the team\u2019s starting lineup the following year. During a 2022 game against South Carolina, Watson left 89,000 fans gasping after he split a double team and ripped the ball away<\/a> from his opponent in a hit reminiscent of Jadeveon Clowney\u2019s helmet-popping hit against Michigan in the 2013 Outback Bowl<\/a>. (It\u2019s a wonder Spencer Rattler, the Gamecocks\u2019 6ft 1in, 218lb quarterback, managed to tackle Watson to the ground afterwards.) At last year\u2019s Gasperilla Bowl, Watson\u2019s college swan song, the Gators handed the ball off to him to get a first down late in the game. \u201cI can do it all,\u201d he said afterward.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The defensive tackle is one of the most intriguing prospects in this year\u2019s draft. But the attributes that make him stand out could also be his downfall Desmond Watson is pro football\u2019s next very big thing: a 6ft 6in, 464lb defensive tackle who is poised to become the heaviest player ever selected at the NFL … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}