Deshaun Watson shined at Clemson, and he was always at his brightest in his team’s biggest moments. Now he’ll look to carry that success to the Texans after being selected by Houston with the No. 12 overall pick. They traded with the Browns to move up and take him, and they needed a quarterback.
Deshaun Watson just wins games. Will that continue with the Texans?
The two-time Heisman finalist and this year’s national champion QB is heading to the pros.
Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
The Browns get Houston’s 25th overall pick this year and their first-round pick in 2018. Cleveland got Houston’s second-round pick in 2018 as part of the Osweiler trade.
There’s no perfect prospect in this year’s quarterback class, but Watson has the best resume. Watson thought he should be the first quarterback off the board, before Mitchell Trubisky, because of it. He’s the third QB taken after the Bears took Trubisky and Chiefs took Patrick Mahomes. This will irritate Clemson.
“You’re gonna have to live with the consequences that come with it,” Watson said Tuesday on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, of teams passing on him.
Last season, the two-time Heisman finalist led Clemson to a thrilling 35-31 national championship win over Alabama in a game that came down to Watson’s ability to make big plays when it mattered.
There have been questions about whether Watson is ready to start in the NFL as a rookie, but he has the poise and talent to adapt to the NFL quickly and develop into a franchise quarterback for Houston.
What sets Watson apart from the other quarterbacks in this class?
Deshaun Watson knows how to win.
Clemson lost just two games in Watson’s final two years in college. The only game the Tigers lost in the 2015 season was the College Playoff National Championship matchup against Alabama. Clemson fell in a heartbreakingly close 45-40 game, but Watson was phenomenal, throwing for 405 yards and four touchdowns against one interception.
In last season’s rematch, Watson willed the Tigers to victory with his MVP performance. He had 420 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions, and he added a score on the ground in the comeback win.
On the game-winning touchdown, his poise was evident.
It fulfilled a promise Watson made when he was still in high school.
His winning ways go back to high school. Watson led his alma mater, Gainesville High School, to a state championship in 2012. It was the first championship in the Red Elephants’ century-plus history.
Watson finished his college career with 8,697 yards and 76 touchdowns to 30 interceptions over two seasons as a full-time starter. He has been consistently praised for his leadership, too. His college coach, Dabo Swinney, likened him to Michael Jordan, and he said on the Rich Eisen Show that anyone who doesn’t see Watson as first-round talent “should lose their jobs.”
“They don’t know Deshaun. I mean, I can’t even tell you how brilliant he is as a football player, as a person, how impactful of a man he is,” Swinney said. “He’s going to change a locker room the day he gets there. He’s just so driven, so humble. (He has an) unbelievable understanding of his platform and his skill set is off the charts. He can do anything and everything.”
That includes punting, which Watson did effectively in the title game win over Alabama, pinning them deep in their own territory.
And Watson didn’t just win consistently — he did it against top competition. Watson had the toughest strength of schedule of any quarterback in this year’s draft, and he led his team to a 5-1 record in the postseason.
What will Watson need to improve in the NFL?
The main concern about Watson is his ability to adapt to a pro-style offense, and it’s something scouts, coaches and GMs evaluated him for at the combine, his pro day, and in individual meetings with teams.
At Clemson, Watson took the vast majority of snaps out of the shotgun formation, but he’ll be called upon to take more snaps under center at the next level. At his pro day, he turned in an impressive performance on a scripted workout of about 50 plays, including many snaps under center with five- and seven-step dropbacks.
There were some knocks on Watson’s deep ball accuracy in college, and that’s something else he tried to showcase at his pro day. Speed of making reads in the NFL will be a challenge for Watson, too. The number of interceptions he threw was a concern, but it’s an issue Watson says he’s learned from.
“It’s something that they obviously are going to poke holes. If I were in their shoes I would poke holes too,” Watson said at the combine. “I take full responsibility in all of that. Sometimes you just have bad luck. Sometimes the defense makes a good play. Sometimes I make a bad throw. One, two or three, maybe it was a bad decision but it’s a learning lesson.”
His solid performances at the NFL Combine and his pro day should have helped alleviate concerns for teams to a degree.
What’s his passion off the field?
The 21-year-old Watson is a native of Gainesville, Ga., where he grew up with his mother and siblings in a home built by Habitat for Humanity and furnished by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons running back Warrick Dunn. Habitat is a cause that remains near to Watson’s heart.
In 2015, Watson was awarded Habitat’s first-ever Next Generation award, to honor children who grew up in Habitat homes and went on to achieve great things. He certainly fits the bill.
It wasn’t just a house. It was a home for Watson’s family, and it brought stability and hope. That foundation helped Watson become who he is on the field, too.
“I know where I was before, and I know where I want to go,” Watson said via ESPN’s David Hale in 2015. “I’m not afraid of who I am.”
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