24 Players in 24 Days: #22 Tre Watson

Position: Tight End
Classification: Senior
Hometown: Rio Rancho, NM (Fresno State)
Listed Height: 6-5
Listed Weight: 245 lbs.

Key notes from Liucci’s thoughts on Watson

• His recruitment is one of the first things that stood out about Tre Watson. He went to Washington for a visit. Watch the Huskie offense and the way Kalen DeBoer and Ryan Grubb threw the ball. They also ran the football too and were a physical football team. If they thought he fit that offense, that got my attention because I love what they did up there. It wasn’t just Michael Penix Jr. Everything about that offense was exceptional.
   
• Watch what Watson did at Fresno State. He was really close with Jaylen Henderson, so you have a guy at Texas A&M who really knows him too. Last fall, he had 38 catches for 378 yards and four touchdowns. That is almost 10 yards per catch. Those are good numbers for a tight end. When he got here, you could tell he ran well enough to be a matchup problem.
   
• He has good size. They have some massive tight ends on the roster, so he won’t be the biggest one. He still has good enough size, and he’s good enough in his routes to be a matchup problem for safeties and can outrun linebackers.
   
• Watson has some Jace Sternberger to him in that he’s really athletic. He can catch, and he can also run after the catch.
   
• When you look at this transfer portal class, some guys stand out. Jim Nagy was texting me about Nic Scourton and then tweeted about him today. Nagy was raving about Scourton. A scout was watching Scourton the other day and said he reminds him of Mario Williams.
   
• Scourton is a big transfer portal addition. You got a former five-star from Alabama in Dezz Ricks. You got some offensive line starters that will have a good chance to start here. You got a potential starting linebacker from Pitt in Solomon DeShields. We still don’t talk about a couple of guys that I think will have a shot to make a tremendous impact this year: Cyrus Allen and Watson. I could see both of those guys starting and playing a ton. They’re both real players.
   
• I think Watson will be an impact portal addition that nobody is really talking about.
   
• Theo Melin Öhrström had a really good spring and started to turn a corner. The combination of Donovan Green and Watson could be really intriguing.
   
• Green has so much height and length. He’s such a big target with a big catch radius. He’s a smart player and such a willing blocker. Green is coming back with something to prove. I haven’t talked about Green enough this offseason, and that has been because of the unknown of how far along his progression will be after 11 months removed from surgery. He might be all the way back or at least to where he knows his limitations. He is going to play a ton this year, but it’s just a question of how close he is to being the Green we saw.
   
• The Green and Watson tandem is going to be a pretty formidable one because both of these guys — while they both can be real weapons in the passing game — can present real problems.