Tampa, Fla. – Desmond Watson knows where he wants to go, and one of the keys to get there, does not stop on the way.
Watson, a defensive lineman from Florida, is unique among the NFL design perspectives, if not people in general, check in with a huge 6-foot-6 and 464 pounds last week on his pro-day in Gainesville. That is not a typo, and although he has shown remarkable athletics for a player of his size, I understand that I have to be literate to have a viable future in the NFL.
And that means staying in his car, wherever he goes.
“Stop while driving,” Watson said when he was asked to get rid of bad habits he tried. “My biggest thing is going on, go to where I have to come.
Watson’s Pro daily weight made him a viral sensation for the wrong reasons-464 pound is 20 percent heavier than the stated weight for the largest player in the NFL last year, Ravens Tackle Daniel Falele, on 6-foot-8 and 380 pounds. There are no office records, but the toughest player in the competition history is offs to be former Bears Aaron Gibson, which was mentioned at the peak of a play career that went from 1999-2004.
So the focus of Watson, even more than in four years of football, is to change his diet and train Habs to get better in shape, knowing that this is a way to not only his best chance of the NFL, but for a healthy life.
“It’s like my same problem – no problem, but my same care Througer College,” said Watson about his desire to drop weight. “I get more in department, get a better understanding of the things I have to do to be successful at the next level. It was interesting.
He eats better, snacks on peanuts and almonds. Breakfast that used to be gruts and pancakes loaded with syrup are now older with spinach and tomatoes. He pays at the pump, as he says, in the hope that every pound that he throws will give NFL teams confidence to invest in his future.
Watson, from Plant City, just east of Tampa, went to the local pro day of the BUCs last week, his first real experience with NFL coaches and trainers. Defensive rulers Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey watched as he went these training sessions. See, mentioned on 347 pounds, is a prototype for athletics in a HGE body, and he and Dexter Lawrence are the two NFL players who look the most to see how size can move quickly in football.
“I leave it [Vea] Know that he was an inspiration of mine, under Subson, I try to model my game, “said Watson.
Watson has shown flashes of his athletics. In a 2022 win over South Carolina, he tore the ball Loise from an opposite running run and left, bought by the current Quarterback Stern Ratter. Back in Tampa for his last college match When the Gats met in their game in December in December, Watson had the crowd on his feet when he earned to Camee in the offensive Achterveld as a Jumbo-Fullback and a carry on third and 1 dropped, rumbling for a fabric. Gaters coach Bily Napier called him ‘a unicorn’, the kind of player that you might ever see in Ann Suit Coaching career.
And although his weight has to be the headlines on his pro -day Let Week, he has also set up other impressive figures. I remembered vertical jump of 25 -inch – better than subdefensive torks in this concept class that weigh 150 pounds less. In the bench press, he had 36 repetitions at 225 pounds, which are three repetitions than one of the 300-plus participants in the NFL Combine training.
“He has an athletic capacity and canned explanation,” said Evan Davis, his head coach at Armwood High in Sffner, Florida. “The thing that brought me, we put overhead squats, and he holds the bar on 185 pounds over his head, and he can squat and his ass touches the ground and he goes up again and does reps. I am” bro, you are a hug person. Blade -like and athletic capacity. ” But he does that. “
There is also a big heart in it. He wore no. 21 at Florida Bacous It was the number worn by his brother, Dyson, who suffered from 5 years at the age of 5. And a younger sister is a volleyball middle blocker on Pasco-Hernando State College. I have had both parents and eight brothers and sisters present for his last college competition in Tampa.
It is not something new to want to want to have weight. When he signed with the Gators in 2021, the then coach then joked Mullen that he was grateful that they had to measure his weight with 440 pounds and said, “He has to lose, you know, probably about 12 or 13 years old.”
That battle is underway. He did not blame the Gators and said that they tried to give him many points of sale and opportunities to get better in shape, and he did not do well to take advantage, to stay focused and to bring about real change.
There is a chance that an NFL team can make a shot on Watson with a late round pulling force, but if not, he is in good position to land on a 90-man mantle as an unguomed free agent. That would give him four months to work with NFL trainers and nutritionists, to improve his body while he learns on the field. A development place on a practice team would be a small investment for the NFL team – a full year pays $ 234,000 – and he is only 22, so in a year from now on he would still be younger than a lot of treks this year.
Watson said he tried to treat his food as an addiction, to take it seriously, not to take days off, to concentrate on a better life.
“It’s absolutely difficult,” he said. “People have thought of looking at it as show addiction. They are not drarugs, but it is addictive, whether that is gaming, drarugs, alcohol. I try to change my life.”
He brings changes to what he eats, by avoiding bad choices, but he said that the biggest difference is in his thoughts.
“I think it is more a mental thing, train to eat better, to make better Habs for myself to support life and football,” he said. “It has opened my eyes to see that I can satisfy myself with better things, not to have a negative effect on me.”
Greg Auman is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. I have the Buccanic for the Tampa Bay Times and athletics. You can follow it on Twitter on @Gregaman.
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