QB Deshaun Watson (8.15.24)

So how did day one feel yesterday?

“It was good. It was good to get out there and compete against a different opponent. Very versatile defense in what Flo (Brian Flores) does in Minnesota. And it was good to go out there and see different looks and just compete.”

 

What were some of the things you liked versus some of the things you disliked? I know that the offensive line had their problems yesterday, but what were some of the things that you liked and disliked? 

“Yeah, I don’t consider any of those problems. It just comes down to communication, different looks. You know, this is a joint practice usually, you know, going through the week, you kind of have preparation, looking at film, things like this or things like that. But in training camp you kind of just show up and you kind of try to do the base rules. And sometimes the base rules, you know, the defense might have tendencies that might override those base rules then what we talk about as an offense. So, yeah, I’m very confident in my offensive line. Each one of those guys, they work hard, they study hard, they try hard, so all that stuff can be fixed and that’s why we go through training camps and we practice against different teams. But yeah, overall, there’s some good things out there. Keep stacking these days, keep learning, keep growing from it. It’s not going to always be perfect, but we always strive to be perfect. And that’s why we call it practice and training camp.”

 

It seems that there’s an audition going on at left tackle, as Jed (Wills) is still out. What do you think’s going on at left tackle? How do you feel about it? 

“Whoever’s in is gonna play hard, they’re gonna compete and that’s all we ask for, is just to be able to be the best you and communicate with all the other guys up front to make sure we’re all on the same page and we know our standard when we step out on the field.”

 

Deshaun, you’re so hard on yourself all the time, and you are a perfectionist, we’ve seen that the whole time that you’ve been here. There’s been a few times along the way in this practice where you could tell that you might be getting a little bit frustrated, or at least that’s what it has looked like. And you might be getting a little frustrated with the way things have gone but maybe that’s an incorrect perception. How do you feel about how it’s all coming together with the season just over three weeks away?

“Yeah, I think it is an incorrect perception on me. It’s not that I’m frustrated or anything like that. You know, we all show emotion, but at the same time, like we said, we always want to strive for perfect and perfection. And yeah, sometimes we might show a little shrug or head nod or things like that, but that don’t mean that we’re frustrated. We just want to make sure we capitalize and be successful on each play. And that’s what you want as a team. You don’t want anything to go negative, go wrong and no one cares about it. But overall, like I said before, it’s just keep stacking these days, keep growing, keep learning and that’s all we can do. I think the best teams, not during just training camp, is ready for week one, but ready for week one and the other 16 games. As we continue to grow with that, that’s when the best teams become towards the end of the year.”

 

We saw Jameis (Winston) over here on Monday. You guys both taking a knee at the end of practice, and he was — I mean, he always looks animated, but he looked animated talking to you. What was that conversation about?

“Yeah, I mean, that conversation was just a personal conversation. It’s just both of us just chopping it up, you know, that’s how we always talk. So it wasn’t anything that was going on with practice or anything like that. It was just one of those deals with speaking on whatever we’re speaking on at the moment. You know, we just got finished with conditioning, so I was cooked, I was tired [laughing]. And he came over, you know, being Jameis and just being a motivator, a leader, a good friend and a great teammate. So, you know, we were just talking about just everything that kind of went on.”

 

We’ve seen you pretty much throw every day since camp began. How do you feel strength wise and stamina wise from when camp began?

“I feel really good. Each and every day is a test to that stamina, to that strength, to the preparation that I put in, you know, from the day I got out of surgery. And I think that, you know, again, I give all my credit to, you know, Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache out in L.A., Elite Ultra Sport and their staff with the rehab, Dr. Rob, my PT bodywork guy, going back to Billy Voltaire, my strength and condition, Quincy (Avery), my QB coach. I mean, everyone, the staff here with the training staff, with Joe (Sheehan) and their team, I mean, everyone’s been on the same page, and that’s what we’ve been. We’re on the right pace, right track. And, you know, if we wasn’t on that process, you know, I wouldn’t be throwing every day.”

 

If I could follow, given that you’ve only played twelve games in the last three years, are you okay that you’re not getting snaps in the preseason? Is that kind of overrated or are you content with what the plan is?

“I mean, the biggest thing with the preseason games, I think it comes down to operation. You’re not going to do too much in preseason, you’re not going to show anything. So, it’s really just operational. So that’s why, you know, I take a lot of reps, if not majority of all the reps in these joint practices because it’s game like, going against different opponents, different things, so, yeah, I mean, for me it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, once you step on field, you got to perform, you got to play.

 

How do you think working in this offense with Ken Dorsey is going to make you a better quarterback this season? 

“It’s a different scheme, a scheme that is very similar to what I did before in Houston. Coming from the same kind of similar background and just being able to have Ken, who played the position, being with some high-class quarterbacks and Cam (Newton) and Josh Allen. And he’s been around a lot of football, very smart and he’s a very player-led coach just like (Kevin) Stefanski. And he let his players kind of, you know, do this, do what they need to do for their talent to be shown.”

 

Deshaun, off Tom’s (Withers) question about the preseason, Kevin said the plan is for you to play in Seattle. How excited are you looking toward to that opportunity to get back there and in a game setting? And how do you sort of mentally prepare yourself, you know, to get into kind of game week mode?

“You just take it one day at a time. Like right now we’re in training camp mode, so we’re focusing on today, but whenever that time comes and whatever that day presents, we focus on that. So, at the end of day, just competing, you just gotta go out there and compete and just go play football.”

 

Deshaun, you got some fire ink the other day that you posted about five weeks back. Walk me through that back piece, I’m sure there was a lot of things on there meaningful to you. Harrison Square, M.L.K. … walk me through it.

“Yeah, so my back piece is my story. It’s my lifeline. You know, I got my mom and I have my beautiful queen-lady Jilly (Anais), two of my heroes of my life. And then I got, you know, two little — I forget what you call them — pieces of an older me and a younger me holding hands. And it’s basically an outlook of, you know — on top there’s more glory with the clouds, and it’s basically an outlook of just my story. It just kind of trickles on down. Harrison Square, 815 Harrison Square is the section-8 apartments I grew up in where I learned how to play football, learned a lot of just about life. And then I have the rings; state championship, national championship and then, of course, I have the other one whenever that comes, the Super Bowl one. And then I have, you know, the Popeye is forever strong, so whatever you go through just being strong and taking it one step at a time. Then I have the Astro World six; that’s for, like, my friends back home, my homeboys. It’s six of us, really eight of us, but at the time, it was six of us, we called each other the six. I actually have it tatted right here, too. Yeah, that’s for my homeboys. And then the Martin Luther King was just – being African American, a guy that I looked up to growing up during school and then having a dream. As a young kid growing up in Harrison Square, you know, the percentage is very low of making it out, not just football, but just in life in general. So I have a lot of people that I grew up with that I looked up to and still kind of in the same predicament that they were before. But, you know, when you’re looking up as a kid to those type of people, and then the roles reverse. They want their kids and themselves to look up to me, it’s a high standard that I continue to carry on my back and on my shoulders. So hopefully I didn’t miss anything. I got my snowflakes, and each snowflake has a name in it. I have my brothers, Tyreke and Detrick, and then my sister, and I got one at the bottom that’s ‘Watson’ for the Watson family. Yeah, then I got ‘legendary’, of course, being legendary. And, yeah, I think that was pretty much it. If I missed something, then it’s part of my story.”

 

And this was all in one session too, right? 

“Yeah, all in one session. Shout out to Ortega Ink out of Arizona.”

 

Deshaun, can you talk about just how important Jameis has been to you this whole entire offseason and preseason, and just those talks that you had on the field. How much does that mean to you and how do you think that’s really going to help you throughout this whole season?

“Yeah, it’s gonna help both of us. I think coming from similar but different backgrounds. He’s been, you know, played a lot of football, he’s been at the highest level, been around other pro quarterbacks. So, for me, it’s being able to learn and build off the knowledge and then vice versa, you know, him learning from me and what I see and different schemes and different offense and success that I had. So, you know, we feeding off each other and not just us two, but the whole room. Snoop (Tyler Huntley), DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson), we’re a brotherhood. So, you know, every time you see us moving, it’s probably one of us with each other. So that’s the chemistry and the love that we have in our room is definitely one of the best I’ve ever had.”

 

Are you concerned yourself, with the shoulder?

“No, I just keep stacking the days and keep trying to make each and every throw like before. It’s only going to continue to get better.”

 

What about taking a hit? Do you think that will be valuable if you play in a Seattle game like Kevin (Stefanski) planned? Do you feel like you need to take a hit? 

“No, I’m not trying to take a hit. That’s not even on my mind. I’m trying to just come out clean each and every game. That ain’t on my mind to take a hit.”

 

When did you officially get, like, medically cleared for contact? Because Kevin had mentioned earlier in the week that you would have been medically cleared. 

“Probably before training camp, to be honest. That’s the communication with Joe (Sheehan) and them so Dr. ElAttrache he cleared me for everything.”

 

So, nobody had, like, come to you directly and been like, “you’re good to go in preseason games,” and if it’s full contact?

“I mean, Joe mentioned it. I think that, like I said, that was conversation with the front office and Dr. ElAttrache. So, Joe just said, ‘Hey, I’m clear.’ So that means, for me, it means that everything is clear.”

 

With you going against another team for the first time in these joint practices, coming off the rehab, coming off the surgery, do you consider these two days of joint practices important for your confidence on this comeback trail?

“Yeah, every day is a confidence booster, you know what I’m saying? So not just going against different opponents, different teams, a great Minnesota team, but against a great defensive team, too. They don’t take it light on me and I don’t want them to go out there and, you know, ‘Four had a shoulder injury, so, you know, let’s just take a light whenever he’s in.’ No, we all compete. We all gonna play like we gonna play in the game. So, when I step on the field between those lines, I gotta perform. Nothing else matter, regardless of an injury or not.”

 

 How do you feel about playing under center versus shotgun?

“It don’t matter to me, to be honest.”

 

Generally, there are some quarterbacks that are hesitant, they played a lot of shotgun to, you know, turn their back on the defense. Can you explain why that is and how that became a non-issue for you?

“I guess it’s always been a non-issue for me. You know, I play some under center stuff in Houston, did a lot of that play action stuff on there on the center. So, for me, right now I’m in eight years in like, it doesn’t bother me. If you would ask me my rookie year, maybe.”

 

How much is it helping you to have to go against Myles Garrett in practice? He seems like he’s in beast mode this camp. How much is it getting you ready for Micah Parsons and the season to have to deal with Myles every day?

“Yeah, I mean, Myles is, I mean, he’s the best in the world and I think everyone knows that. So, it’s not just good for me, but the whole offense and our offensive linemen. You know, if you can block Myles or try to block Myles and you learn from him, then I think you can block anybody in this league. So, it’s a blessing and it’s great to have him on our team and call him a teammate and it’s fun to be able to go against him each and every day.”

 

With Jerry (Jeudy) in and out of the lineup pretty much throughout training camp, where do you think your timing and chemistry is with Jerry?

“Yeah, it’s coming along. We just got to continue to grow and continue to go. I think, with everyone it’s just going to be able to do that. There’s been limited times where I only played 12 games in the last two years, so the chemistry and the timing, especially with a new system. That’s going to continue to grow and that’s going to continue to go as the reps continue to build up and throughout training camp and throughout the season. So, it’s going to be fun to just continue to have it.”

 

Kevin noted how competitive you are, when Kevin told you that you weren’t going to be playing in the preseason game, was there any pushback on your part? 

“No, not at all. You know, like I said, they all have a real plan for when I need to step out there, what they want to see from me. So, you know, we all talk about it, we all speak on it. Not just Kevin making a decision and I just got to go with it. You know, he sits me down, we talk about it. Ken (Dorsey) is involved, AB (Andrew Berry) is involved, Joe and the training staff is involved. So, it’s not just a one on one kind of conversation, it’s a group. Yeah, of course I would love to play, but at the end of the day, we got to get ready for a 17-plus game season.”

 

Going off of that, Kevin talks a lot about how at these joint practices, he feels that you can get a lot accomplished in those equal to a preseason game. From a player’s standpoint, do you feel you guys get just as much if not more out of days like yesterday and today as you do in a preseason game?

“I think you get more. I think the only thing that you don’t get is like live kind of situational as – when I say live, you know, you kind of still get those situations throughout practice, but you know, the course of how the game is going to flow. Outside of that, I think you get more just because the defense, they don’t have any type of true, what’s the word, kind of responsibility to, if they get beat. They can try anything, they can try everything. So, you know, going into a game, you know, a third and medium, you kind of get the package smaller. But in practice, they can throw out anything because they can try and see what works for them. So, you know, it’s all a building out thing, I think, you know, these joint practices, you gotta, you know, go back to your base rules and fundamentals.”

 

Kevin said you are playing in Seattle. Is that your understanding?

“No, that’s the first time I’ve heard that, so I don’t know. But if I am, I’m playing.”

 

The team is planning to have you play that preseason game.

“That’s fine with me.”

 

You talked about your connection with Jameis and for you in this game, how important is mentorship and how much of a role does that play in being able to go out there through tough stuff and adversity?

“It’s an everyday role, on and off the field. I think that a lot of guys on this team come to me and ask me different questions of what I’ve been through, how to handle situations and I do the same thing, you know, and I tell all the guys that we’re serving leaders. So, I’m always here to serve other people and help them out and try to make them and have them be the best ability they can be on and off the field. So yeah, it’s definitely huge and I’m just going to continue to be that for all my teammates.”

 

You guys are on a mission, obviously this season. Does the Mike Hall situation present any kind of a distraction for you guys or are you so locked in that you’re closing ranks and can deal with something like that?

“Yeah, we, you know, we all out there and practicing and that situation is going to get handled with the front office and we just gotta keep focusing on what the main thing is.”