TAMPA, Fla. — Now that he’s on an NFL roster, Bucs rookie defensive tackle Desmond Watson wants to be more than just a weight-loss story. Listed initially at 464 pounds, Watson is the biggest player ever on an NFL roster, but his goal is to slowly make that a smaller part of what people know about him.
“It’s a good story, but at the same time, I don’t want that to be my narrative,” Watson said during Bucs rookie minicamp last weekend, held about 45 minutes from his home in Plant City. “I want to be known as a football player, and a good football player at that. It’s nice to be able to make history, but all in all, I am a football player and I want to be known as a good one. So it’s a process.”
After going undrafted out of Florida, Watson signed with the hometown Bucs, getting a modest $20,000 bonus. He’s already making progress in lowering his weight, with one of his coaches saying he was down to 437 when he signed with Tampa. Watson declined to provide a current weight or a target number, but said he understands the importance of losing weight ahead of training camp.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles, who already has a massive defensive tackle in 347-pound Pro Bowl nose tackle Vita Vea, said he looks forward to working with Watson and seeing what he can do as part of the team’s defensive front.
“He’s a huge man,” Bowles said. “Our strength staff and nutritionists are … coming up with a plan for him that he’ll go by in the summer. [We’ll] see how he comes back to training camp and keep working from there.”
Watson handled the Florida heat well during minicamp, saying it helps that he’s played his entire life in the state. But managing the sweltering July of training camp is another challenge. He played 283 snaps with the Gators last season, a good amount for a rotational player, and Bowles said coaches want to see how much he can handle from a conditioning standpoint and to improve on that.
“Right now, we just have to see how long he can stay on the field and put him on a program where we think he can make some progress,” Bowles said. “We didn’t [sign] him to say, ‘Hey, we have to put you on the field right now.’ It’s, ‘Hey, we can try to put you on this program and see what we can come up with and see if we can get our endurance better,’ and have him become a better player that way. Then kind of see where he is.
“To judge him right now is very early. We didn’t get him for the Tush Push; we got him because we really thought he could play. It’s just a matter of getting him to the point where he can play more than two or three plays a [drive].”
Watson’s sheer bulk has already made him a fan favorite in Tampa. He’s wearing No. 56, prompting one fan to dub him “Hardy Thickerson,” a nod to a Bucs great who wore the same number. Watson said the outpouring of public support for him, much like he had with the Gators, is something that will push him in the coming months as he tries to stick around on the roster.
“Of course I’ve felt that love,” he said. “Why do I think that is? Mainly because it’s mostly unheard of. I feel like people really can gravitate toward me. It’s been like that my whole life, as far as just I guess the energy I carry around. I’m not sure what exactly makes them gravitate toward me, but I do appreciate it.”
Watson’s first weekend in the NFL was a success. In late May and early June, he’ll have a couple of weeks of OTA workouts with the entire team, wrapping up with a three-day mandatory minicamp in mid-June. That will give way to about six weeks off before training camp, an important time for him to continue to drop weight and put himself in the best condition to battle for a spot on the 53-man roster or practice squad.
Can Watson make the cut this fall? He’s quite literally the biggest underdog story ever for an NFL prospect, and like many fans, he’s eager to find out if he can overcome the odds this fall. It’s one thing to be the biggest NFL player ever signed, but another feat to be the largest player to get in an actual game, and then to get a sack in a game.
“My life feels like a movie,” he said. “You couldn’t write a script where the person goes from little league to high school to college, not 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.”
The Bucs have games this fall in Buffalo and Detroit, so perhaps that travel could check another box off the list for Watson. Then again, if a 464-pound prospect can make an NFL roster, can you really rule out snow in Florida?
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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