Built different: Is the 6XL, 464lb Desmond Watson too large for the NFL? | College football

Desmond Watson is pro football’s next very 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. “He’s a unicorn,” his coach at Florida, Billy Napier, said last month. “You’ll go the rest of your career, and you’ll never be around a guy that’s that stature.

A native of Plant City, Florida, the state’s strawberry capital, Watson was the Gators’ big man on campus, a larger-than-life folk hero to match the school’s 7ft 9in basketball prospect. When Watson arrived at college, he already weighed 440lb – or about as much as a standup piano. Watson’s legend grew once he cracked the team’s 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 from his opponent in a hit reminiscent of Jadeveon Clowney’s helmet-popping hit against Michigan in the 2013 Outback Bowl. (It’s a wonder Spencer Rattler, the Gamecocks’ 6ft 1in, 218lb quarterback, managed to tackle Watson to the ground afterwards.) At last year’s Gasperilla Bowl, Watson’s college swan song, the Gators handed the ball off to him to get a first down late in the game. “I can do it all,” he said afterward.

At Florida’s pro day, Watson showed NFL scouts the full range of that versatility and the extent to which it bends the rules of physics. Besides out-benchpressing every other draft prospect, Watson logged a 25in vertical and a 5.93-second time in the 40-yard dash – poor scores for most NFL hopefuls but impressive for someone of his size. The performance won Watson fans across the country and had analysts buzzing about his pro prospects like never before. The former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson told Watson he’d “look good in stripes” – but any team that’s appraising the Gators bulldozer will also have to think about his literal locker room fit. At Florida, he wore a size-6XL jersey along with custom-made pads and cleats. The only small thing on Watson was his number, 21 – digits that are usually reserved for skill position players. (He picked it to honor his younger brother, Dyson, who wore the number before suffering a life-altering stroke.)

But the thing that really has Watson’s admirers excited is his potential to be just the immovable object to stand up to the NFL’s unstoppable force – the tush push. After a season that saw the Philadelphia Eagles call the “brotherly shove” time and again as they won the Super Bowl, the league is considering banning the play – a quarterback sneak with a teammate or two providing a boost. Tush push detractors believe the play gives too much of an advantage to teams with jumbo-sized offensive linemen. But until the play is officially banned it may be that teams need to stock up on bigger defensive linemen as a counter.

That’s what makes Watson so intriguing: he could be one of those prospects who affects the players who come after him. In the 1980s, 330lb rookie William ‘Refrigerator’ Perry was the one dazzling crowds with his strength and speed on both defense and offense during the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX run. In the 1990s, Nate Newton (nicknamed the Kitchen because he was 5lb heavier than Perry) went from USFL castoff to the linchpin offensive lineman of Dallas Cowboys’ championship dynasty. In the noughties, Cleveland Browns offensive tackle Orlando Brown was such a sight to behold at 6ft 7in and 360lb that people called him Zeus.

But linemen Brown’s size are fixtures in the game now – with do-it-all big men like the Detroit Lions’ Penei Sewell setting the standard. Watson has a chance to break the NFL mold again with his even bigger frame. Just the sight of him clashing with average-sized (for football) players had onlookers gushing about how he makes Perry, the Bears legend, look like “a mini fridge”. The idea that he could usher in a new era of 400lb pound linemen is intriguing. “People see that number and think My 600-pound Life,” Watson’s high school coach, Evan Davis, told the Gainesville Sun in 2021.

But is playing a punishing game at Watson’s weight even sustainable? Football already exacts a brutal physical toll on players. Bigger bodies mean bigger collisions, more strain on joints and an increased risk for injury. To Watson’s immense credit, he never missed a game in his college career – but he has also struggled to maintain his weight, and the Florida pro day marked his heaviest weigh-in yet. Fans who watched Watson’s workout were quick to point out Watson huffing and puffing through portions of some agility drills – worrying signs, perhaps, of a lack of stamina. Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe reckons Watson could be a reliable playmaker at 420lb – but Watson was reluctant to put any limits on himself. “I played against Tennessee, which was the fastest offense in the nation, all four years [of college],” he told Sharpe. “So [weight] isn’t really a worry of mine. But I know the lighter I get, the more I can dominate because that’s the goal.” He added that he is working with a nutritionist to address his diet.

Believe it or not, Watson actually was the smallest at birth among his six siblings – a little over 8lb. But it was only a matter of time before he filled out. That’s perhaps no surprise: his father is 6ft 4in and 300lb. His mother, a former basketball standout, is 250lb – weight she chalks up to having six kids and a lack of activity during Covid lockdowns. That said, not everyone in his family is big. “I come from a family of receivers and running backs, track athletes,” Watson said. “I think it was just destined for me to play in the interior. My older brother is 5ft 9in, 165lb.” Watson is referring to Darrian McNeal, a former University of Oregon slot receiver.

At the moment, he projects as a late-round selection or a priority free-agent signee – but it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see Eagles GM Howie Roseman, who built the sport’s tallest and heaviest offensive line, snap up Watson to preserve the team’s tush-push monopoly. One could also envision Watson being selected with the very last pick in the draft and becoming the NFL’s largest ever Mr Irrelevant. But historic size doesn’t guarantee a long NFL career. Aaron Gibson, who was 410lb when the Lions made him the heaviest player ever drafted, in 1999, played five seasons and missed time every year but one because of nagging injuries.

Watson should get an opportunity to prove himself. Whether it’s a right-sized opportunity will be up to him. “I don’t care who it is,” Watson said of the teams that might draft him. “If anybody’s trying to put me in a jersey, I’m ready for it.” In a 6XL or slimmer fare, the reward could wind up dwarfing the risk.