NFL Draft:Deshaun Watson talks draft with Dan Patrick

Leading up to today, Clemson football quarterback Deshaun Watson has been making the rounds on sports talk shows and one of his stops was the Dan Patrick Show.

With his dream of playing in the NFL on the brink of coming to fruition, Watson sat down with the NBCSports host and gave a relaxed, candid interview. Here are some highlights from that conversation.

He is expected to be drafted high and has the choice of staying at home with family or traveling to Philadelphia. But Watson left no doubt on where he will be tonight or if he is nervous that he could possibly sit there for awhile.

"Not at all. My dream has always been to be in that green room. It’s my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I’m going to take advantage of it and go."

Sometimes draft prospects may know what team will draft them, but Watson has no idea. However, he feels good about being drafted in the first round.

"You hear so many different things. But from all the advice that I’ve gotten from each team that I worked out with and visited with. They all for sure said that I’m going first round, so hopefully it stays put."

Does Watson think that he could be drafted fourth by the Jacksonville Jaguars? He gave this answer to Patrick.

"I think so. They brought me down on a visit. The visit went great. I spent a lot of time. I got a former coach that was at Clemson with me, is there in Jacksonville. I think that’s a chance."

That former coach is defensive line coach Marion Hobby who held that same position at Clemson.

Patrick also asked him about joining the Kansas City Chiefs. He has visited the Chiefs, and they have the 27th pick.

"I wouldn’t mind Kansas City. Andy Reid(Head coach), Alex Smith(starting quarterback). It would be nice."

Of course, all rookies want to become instant starters and contribute right away to their new team. But realistically, Watson may not see the field. Would he be okay with sitting and watching next season?

"I’m okay with it. I think it’s great value learning from a veteran guy that’s been there and done that, knows how to handle success and adversity, knows how to be professional and know how the team operates."

So much has been made of Watson playing in a spread offense and not being under the center. It’s estimated that he was only under center about 40 times. Patrick asked if there was much of a difference in the shotgun and being under center.

"I mean it’s a little different. But if you really break down the NFL game. The majority of the snaps are shotgun. You’re gonna be in shotgun because of how good the frontline is, the defensive line are. You want to buy yourself more time. So you don’t want to start up there where they’re at and give them extra time. So you want to be in the shotgun."

Watson has obviously done his homework because according to AP News, 60.5 percent of the snaps in the NFL are from the shotgun and 78.9 percent of those snaps resulted in passing plays.

The Wonderlic test results for quarterbacks from the NFL Combine surfaced this weekend and Watson scored a 20 out of 50. That score placed him last in that group and is considered an average score.

The test has been around since 1936 and used by the NFL starting in the 1970s. The Wonderlic test scores are always a topic of discussion before the draft. What does Watson think of the test?

"I guess you can go both ways. You know some people say that they rather keep it closed and let the teams know instead of letting the whole world know. Some people score low on that and don’t test well, but have a great career. And some people do the opposite."

And what about the questions on the test? According to Wonderlic Wikipedia, the questions are cognitive in nature and can include analogies, arithmetic, direction following etc. Watson talked about the questions.

"Its kind of weird questions. It’s kind of like Bob have 36 cucumbers or apples and Sam has 18, and then Samantha comes and takes 12 from Bob and she add something. It’s just random questions and the clock is running."

Watson had 941 total yards and 8 touchdowns in the national title games.  What did he have to say about his success against Alabama?

"I’m always big on challenges, so whenever the challenge is there in my face, and the bigger the challenge, the better I play and perform. Alabama just brings the best out of you. You’re either going to get exposed or you gonna expose them."

Clemson played well in both national championship games but which game would Watson prefer to watch. Seems like an easy answer and here’s his response to that question.

"Probably the game I won. Because I don’t want to feel that loss and think about that loss. Because it was very, very tough."

He had this to say when asked if the 35-31 win makes up for the previous 45-40 loss.

"It do. But honestly, man. When we lost, it felt like we won at the same time. It’s kind of weird because so many people were surprised how well we played, and how they thought that we should’ve won the game. And you know going in to the next season, everyone was like, okay, it’s going to be Clemson and Alabama in the National Championship game again. Which it was. But it just felt like we have so much respect and so much recognition from the game."

The game winning pass to receiver Hunter Renfrow has been replayed by fans in their minds, on YouTube and it will live on forever in Clemson University history. So what did Watson see on the play that finished Alabama and gave Clemson football its second National title?

"It was slow-motion. Right when it hit him, everything just sped up again. You have times in practice where you kinda have an open guy and you throw it at his feet. But at that moment, I wasn’t going to let it happen."

Deshaun Watson has showed maturity throughout the draft process and this interview with Dan Patrick irradiates that characteristic. He also proves himself to be knowledgeable about matters that could affect his draft status like shotgun snaps and the Wonderlic Test.

Known as a hard worker and a composed player on the field. His preparedness off the field should also make NFL coaches and owners take notice and take him in the top ten tonight.