TAMPA, Fla. — Desmond Watson knows where he wants to go, and one of the keys to getting there is not stopping along the way.
Watson, a defensive lineman from Florida, is unique among NFL Draft prospects if not people in general, checking in at a massive 6-foot-6 and 464 pounds at his pro day in Gainesville last week. That is not a typo, and though he has shown remarkable athleticism for a player 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 his car, wherever he’s going.
“Stopping while driving,” Watson said when asked about bad habits he’s tried to shed. “My biggest thing is keep going, get to where I need to get. There are stores and a lot of temptations. That’s helped me immensely: Don’t go inside the gas station. Pay at the pump. Because inside, it’s snacks and all types of things like that. Don’t pull over. If you’re on the highway, stay on the highway until you get where you’ve got to go.”
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Watson’s pro day weigh-in made him a viral sensation for the wrong reasons — 464 pounds is 20 percent heavier than the listed weight for the biggest player in the NFL last year, Ravens tackle Daniel Faalele, at 6-foot-8 and 380 pounds. There are no official records, but the heaviest player in league history is often said to be former Bears tackle Aaron Gibson, who was listed at 410 pounds at the peak of a playing career that went from 1999-2004.
So Watson’s focus, even more so than it’s been in four years of college football, is to change his diet and training habits to get in better shape, knowing that’s a path to not only his best chance at the NFL, but for a healthy life overall.
“It’s been like my same problem — not problem, but my same concern throughout college,” Watson said of his desire to drop weight. “I’m getting more in depth, getting a better grasp of the things I need to do to be successful at the next level. It’s been interesting. I’ve learned a lot about myself in this process.”
He’s eating better, snacking on peanuts and almonds. Breakfasts that used to be grits and pancakes loaded with syrup are now omelets with spinach and tomatoes. He’s paying at the pump, like he says, hoping every pound he sheds will give NFL teams confidence to invest in his future.
Watson, who is from Plant City, just east of Tampa, went to the Bucs‘ local pro day last week, his first real experience with NFL coaches and trainers. Bucs defensive linemen Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey watched as he went through individual workouts. Vea, listed at 347 pounds, is a prototype for athleticism in a huge body, and he and Dexter Lawrence are the two NFL players Watson watches the most to see how size can move quickly in football.
“I let [Vea] know he was an inspiration of mine, someone I try to model my game after,” Watson said.
Watson has shown flashes of his athleticism. In a 2022 win over South Carolina, he ripped the ball loose from an opposing running back and took off running, brought down by current Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler. Back in Tampa for his final college game when the Gators faced Tulane in their bowl game in December, Watson had the crowd on its feet when he earned a cameo in the offensive backfield as a jumbo fullback and got a carry on third-and-1, rumbling for a first down. Gators coach Billy Napier called him “a unicorn,” the kind of player you might see once in an entire coaching career.
And while his weight got the headlines at his pro day last week, he put up other impressive numbers as well. He recorded a vertical leap of 25 inches — better than some defensive tackles in this draft class who weigh 150 pounds less. In the bench press, he had 36 reps at 225 pounds, which is three more reps than any of 300-plus participants at the NFL Combine workouts.
“He has athletic ability I can’t even explain,” said Evan Davis, his head coach at Armwood High in Seffner, Florida. “The thing that got me, we were doing overhead squats, and he’s holding the bar at 185 pounds over his head, and he can squat down and his butt touches the ground and he goes back up and doing reps. I’m like ‘Bro, you’re a huge human being. You shouldn’t have that much bend and athletic ability.’ But he does.”
There’s a big heart in there as well. He wore No. 21 at Florida because it was the number worn by his younger brother, Dyson, who suffered a stroke at age 5. He’s from a family of athletes: His mother was a sprinter, an older brother, Darrian McNeal, played receiver at Oregon (at 5-foot-9, 163 pounds) and a younger sister is a volleyball middle blocker at Pasco-Hernando State College. He had both parents and eight siblings in attendance for his final college game in Tampa.
Wanting, even needing, to lose weight is not anything new for Watson. When he signed with the Gators in 2021, then-coach Dan Mullen joked that he was thankful they had equipment to measure his weight at 440 pounds, saying, “He’s gotta lose, you know, probably about a 12- or 13-year-old right now.”
That battle is ongoing. He doesn’t put any blame on the Gators, saying they tried to give him many outlets and opportunities to get in better shape, and he didn’t do a good job of taking advantage, staying focused and bringing about real change.
There’s a chance an NFL team could take a shot on Watson with a late-round draft pick, but if not, he’s in good position to land on a 90-man roster as an undrafted free agent. That would give him four months to work with NFL trainers and nutritionists, to improve his body while learning on the field. A developmental spot on a practice squad would be a tiny investment for NFL team — a full year there pays $234,000 — and he’s only 22, so a year from now, he’d still be younger than many draft picks this year.
Watson said he’s tried to treat his eating like an addiction, to take it seriously, to not take days off, to focus on a better life.
“It’s definitely hard,” he said. “People have taught me to look at it like another addiction. It’s not drugs, but it’s addicting, whether that’s gaming, drugs, alcohol. I think this is my vice. I’m just trying to get a hold of it. Just like drugs can kill you, this can do the same thing. I’m trying to change my life.”
He’s making changes in what he eats, in avoiding bad choices, but he said the biggest difference is in his mind.
“I think it’s more of a mental thing, training to eat better, to make better habits for myself to sustain life and football,” he said. “It’s opened my eyes to see I can satisfy myself with better things, to not have a negative effect on me.”
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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