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Joe Moorhead knew Browns pick Nathaniel Watson would 'have an opportunity to play' in NFL
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- Joe Moorhead knew Browns pick Nathaniel Watson would 'have an opportunity to play' in NFL
The journey Mississippi State linebacker Nathaniel Watson took to become the Cleveland Browns' sixth-round pick (No. 206 overall) started with a projection.
"I think it was really a unique evaluation and a good job by our recruiting department and our coaching staff that Bookie (Waton's nickname, pronounced 'BOO-kee') played very little, if any, defense in high school," Joe Moorhead, who was Mississippi State's coach at the time, recalled in a phone interview Sunday with the Beacon Journal. "He was a tight end, he was a wideout, and it was really a pure projection to the other side of the ball.
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"The thing that stood out the most was his size, his length and his athleticism, and we felt that he would make a heck of a college inside linebacker."
Moorhead has since moved on to the University of Akron, where he's going into his third season as coach. However, he was going into his first year in Starkville when he ventured to Maplesville, Ala. — population 637 — to recruit Watson, one of Irene Granson's five children.
Browns area scout Matt Donahoe described Watson after he was picked as a "country kid who loves to play the game of football." The college football coach who ultimately landed him at Mississippi State, though, remembered how much his initial interaction with Watson was much different than what became routine between the two once they became familiar with each other.
"He comes from a very, very small town in Alabama," Moorhead said. "His mother did obviously a phenomenal job raising Bookie. When you first meet him, he seems a little bit reserved, short one- and two-word answers. As you get to know him and gain his trust, he's incredibly engaging, a great communicator and really just a fun kid to be around that his teammates enjoy."
Mississippi State linebacker Nathaniel Watson (14) on the sidelines during a Sept. 10, 2022, game against Arizona in Tucson.
Moorhead was actually doing the second sales job on Mississippi State to Watson. The No. 19-ranked player in the state of Alabama had originally committed to the Bulldogs, but that was while Dan Mullen was their coach.
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However, when Mullen bounced to become the coach at SEC rival Florida, Mississippi State hired Moorhead, who had been Penn State's offensive coordinator. That meant a whole new coaching staff for Watson to learn about, and a whole new group of potential recruits for Moorhead to do the same with.
Moorhead, though, remembers coming away impressed as much with Watson the person as he was Watson the player from that visit.
"I remember going to do the home visit and pulling in and just, there's kind of a thought process in recruiting that you can gauge to a certain extent the type of person a young man is from a character standpoint by how he treats his mother," Moorhead said. "He's a very super respectful kid and, like I said, the interactions he had with his mom, who once again is a phenomenal lady, you can tell that he was a kid that was about the right things, a guy of high character."
There have been questions throughout the draft process about a couple of red flags in Watson's past. One was an arrest last May on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Mississippi State's Marcus Murphy (7) and Mississippi State coach Joe Moorhead embrace after a Sept. 1, 2018, over Stephen F. Austin in Starkville, Miss.
However, the other one occurred in February of his senior year in high school when Watson was charged with felony first-degree assault and traffic violations. The charges stemmed from a drag-racing incident that resulted in, according to the Maplesville Police Department statement, "an oncoming car caused (Watson) to swerve and lose control striking a power pole, cutting it in half and knocking power out to portions of Maplesville."
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Another student in Watson's car, according to the police statement, "had a crushed femur, fractured pelvis, his right arm broken and internal injuries. He was airlifted to UAB for treatment."
Moorhead was asked about that incident. He cut the questioner off before the question was finished.
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"I'll throw this out there before you even get going," Moorhead said. "I recall the event. I don't have a ton of recollection of it, but the process played out and it was really a non-starter for us. It wasn't anything that changed our opinion of him as a person or affected his ability to play in our program."
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What ultimately impacted that were normal things that impact playing time, such as simple development or players in front of someone on the depth chart. For Watson's first two seasons, there were definitely players in front of him who limited him to just nine games in the 2018-19 seasons.
Specifically, that group included Leo Lewis, Erroll Thompson and Willie Gay . Gay recently signed with the New Orleans Saints after four seasons and two Super Bowl wins with the Kansas City Chiefs , while the other two at least had NFL feelers out of college.
"You knew he wasn't going to come in right away and be an immediate contributor, because there's a learning curve from not only not playing defense but playing defense in the SEC," Moorhead said. "So it was good for him to be able to come in, learn from two guys who were in the NFL now … Even not knowing a ton about playing defensive football, you put him out there and in scrimmages and on the scout team the first year, he was just a really instinctive football player, and I think that comes from knowing a lot about the game."
Western Michigan wide receiver Anthony Sambucci (5) runs the ball while defended by Mississippi State linebacker Nathaniel Watson (14) on Oct. 7, 2023, in Starkville, Miss.
Moorhead, though, wasn't around to see the fruits of that learning. After the Bulldogs lost to Louisville in the Music City Bowl at the end of the 2019 season, he was fired and eventually went to become the offensive coordinator at Oregon.
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Watson, meanwhile, proved the projections correct. He played in 48 games, including 39 starts, over the next four seasons, recording 374 tackles, 34 tackles for loss, 21 sacks, three forced fumbles, seven passes defensed and two interceptions.
The last two seasons combined, Watson had 250 total tackles, 25 tackles for loss, 16 sacks, two forced fumbles and one interception. He led the SEC in tackles (137) and sacks (10) last season.
"We knew that it was going to happen," Moorhead said. "We knew it wouldn't be year one. We knew he would contribute a little bit year two. But in terms of the long-term projection, we thought, this is a guy that looks like he could be a really, really productive SEC linebacker and have an opportunity to play at the next level."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Nathaniel Watson's promise was evident to Joe Moorhead in recruitment
