Deshaun Watson Creeping up on Top Quarterback

Despite being the gamer he is, many have Deshaun Watson out of the first round this year. But at the NFL Scouting Combine, he turned heads Saturday.

Let me preface this with I’m not in love with any of the quarterbacks in this draft class. But if consensus top quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is projected into the top 10, Watson should be No. 1. He has some stuff to learn but none of these QBs are ready like Andrew Luck.

However Watson is a gamer and no moment on the field is too big for him. He can be in the midst of a bad game and still figure things out in time to win the game. He’s played against the best competition including Alabama in the National Championship game.

And he has always come up big when his team needed it most, getting rattled by no one. Meanwhile. People gush over Trubisky’s “consistent tape” against nondescript competition. But when he did face a tough defense, he came up small and his team lost.

The NFL Scouting Combine is another big stage, featuring Watson and Trubisky. And again, it was Watson that took all the chips when they were on the table Saturday. The big question for him was how quickly he can learn the footwork of dropping back from under center.

Footwork is everything to a quarterback because it affects the accuracy of a throw. And Watson adapted quicker than Trubisky, looking polished with his footwork, surprising many on hand. And the result was great accuracy with completions darn-near every pass he threw.

He had an outstanding day while Trubisky wasn’t horrible but didn’t have a great combine. Sure, they were just out there in shorts and shirts with no rush but that should have been Trubisky’s thing. Watson is the one that showed he can do it under the heat lamp.

He beat Alabama’s defense while Trubisky couldn’t handle Georgia’s or Stanford’s defense. Draft experts that praise him for going through his progressions need to look at those two games. Either way, Watson and Pat Mahomes looked like superior prospects Saturday.

But stay tuned, there’s a long way to go!