TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are signing former Florida Gators 400-plus-pound defensive tackle Desmond Watson to their practice squad, a source confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
Watson had worked out for the Bucs last week and the team was encouraged by what they saw in terms of his physical progress. Coach Todd Bowles emphasized that Watson wasn’t being brought in simply because the team is playing the Philadelphia Eagles, with their noted tush push, this week.
“He had a good workout,” Bowles said Monday. “But we’ll never bring him in just to stop a tush push. If we’ve got to bring in a guy to stop one play and the tush push never comes up, you’re wasting your time.
“If we bring him in, we think he can play, not just for a Philadelphia thing. It’s very unlikely he’d be ready to play, once we bring him in, for Philadelphia right now anyway.”
Watson had signed with the Bucs as an undrafted free agent after the NFL draft. The team had an undisclosed target weight that they wanted Watson to meet before they could feel comfortable with him practicing. Because he was on the non-football illness list during training camp, Watson was unable to practice with the team. He could only condition and attend meetings at the facility this summer and had to watch practices from the sideline.
Watson was waived last month, ahead of the roster cut deadline.
Sources close to the situation declined to provide a current weight for Watson. He officially measured in at 6-foot-6 and 449 pounds for the Bucs in May, and at his Florida pro day, he weighed in at 464 pounds. Either of those weights would have made him the heaviest player in NFL history had he suited up for a game. There is no active player in the NFL who weighs 400 pounds.
Prior to Watson, the heaviest player to play an NFL game was offensive tackle Aaron Gibson at 410 pounds, followed by offensive tackle Terrell Brown at 403 pounds, offensive guard Nate Newton at 401 pounds, offensive guard Mike Jasper at 394 pounds, offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie at 386 pounds and defensive tackle William “Refrigerator” Perry at 382 pounds.
The Bucs have been actively trying to bolster their interior, with 2023 first-round pick Calijah Kancey going to injured reserve with a torn pectoral muscle last week. They signed defensive lineman Elijah Simmons off the Arizona Cardinals practice squad last week to help account for the loss of Kancey.
