Deshaun Watson built on strong combine performance at Clemson’s pro day

It was a packed house at Clemson’s pro day. John Fox, Mike Tomlin, Mike Mularkey and Jim Caldwell were part of a contingent of over 100 NFL personnel on hand to watch Mike Williams, Ben Boulware, and other NFL draft hopefuls perform. The spotlight, of course, was on quarterback Deshaun Watson.

Watson is coming off an impressive combine performance and wanted to show that it wasn’t a fluke. He went through a 50-play scripted workout, and after missing a couple of throws early, he settled in and improved.

One of the aspects of Watson’s game that teams are looking for him to improve upon is getting more air under his passes to let receivers establish tempo on routes. Watson also took plenty of snaps under center during his workout. He only took one snap under center during his final season at Clemson, ESPN analyst Todd McShay estimated on SportsCenter.

That was a concern for teams, not because taking snaps from under center is necessarily harder than taking them out of the shotgun, but because of the footwork and timing on the dropback from under center.

Watson said he does plan to attend the NFL draft. McShay and Mocking the Draft’s Dan Kadar, in their latest mock drafts, both project Watson to the Cleveland Browns with the 12th overall pick

Hue Jackson and Sashi Brown, however, opted to skip Clemson’s pro day. The Browns will host Watson for a private workout instead, according to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.

Also of note, receiver Mike Williams, who did not run the 40-yard dash at the combine, exceeded expectations at his pro day:

That puts Williams one step closer to becoming the best Mike Williams the NFL has ever seen.

Clemson drew an interesting comparison for the NFL personnel in attendance:

Former Clemson star and current Kansas City Chiefs running back, C.J. Spiller, shared his pro day analysis.

We’ll find out during the draft if NFL teams agree.