{"id":48667,"date":"2025-05-14T05:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/48667\/"},"modified":"2025-05-14T05:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-14T05:53:11","slug":"buccaneers-464-pound-rookie-sends-bold-message-about-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/48667\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers’ 464-Pound Rookie Sends Bold Message About Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Heading into the 2025 NFL draft, Florida Gators 464-pound defensive tackle Desmond Watson was a name to watch. While he didn’t get drafted, he was quickly signed as an undrafted free agent by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.<\/p>\n

Watson officially made history as the heaviest player of all-time in the NFL. He’s hopeful to become much more than just a record-holder for his weight.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

During his college football career at Florida, Watson played four years with the Gators. He racked up 63 total tackles, four tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and a defended pass.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his rookie season with the Buccaneers, Watson has spoken out<\/a> and revealed a bold message about his future and what his goals are at the NFL level.<\/p>\n

“I feel like my name is etched in history, of course, as the official heaviest player in the NFL, or whatnot, it’s a good story; at the same time I don’t want it to be my narrative,” Watson said. “I want to be known as a football player, and a good football player at that. But it’s nice to be able to make history\u2026I guess again because I did it in college, too. 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 just a process that comes with it, I guess.”<\/p>\n

\"Tampa<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie defensive tackle Desmond Watson.\u00a9 Doug Engle &sol; USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay brought in a couple of undrafted free agents who could become impact players. Along with Watson, they also signed Shilo Sanders, the defensive back and son of Deion Sanders.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

For Watson, his future is wide open for the taking. He has big goals, but he’s with a quality franchise and a great coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Only time will tell, but just like he did in college, Watson will turn heads when he and his 464-pound frame are on the field.<\/p>\n

Related: Shedeur Sanders Sends Eye-Opening Message to Browns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heading into the 2025 NFL draft, Florida Gators 464-pound defensive tackle Desmond Watson was a name to watch.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2793,4434,1301,7,8606,6,2715,704,250,2597,2596,2821],"class_list":{"0":"post-48667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-defensive-tackle","10":"tag-desmond-watson","11":"tag-florida-gators","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-football-player","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-shilo-sanders","16":"tag-tampa-bay","17":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","18":"tag-tampabay","19":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","20":"tag-undrafted-free-agent"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114504637200906491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}