MOBILE, Alabama — This is Jaylen Watkins’ week to show off his skills to the scouts, coaches and general managers who arrive in force every year for an intense week of talent evaluation at the Senior Bowl. Watkins talked about his first couple of days at the event including a crazy first day that was filled with interviews and questions.
“I came in on Saturday to Mobile,” Watkins said. “When I got here it got hectic for me because we had all of these Wonderlic like test to take and other different kind of test. After that we got settled in and got to eat and meet some of the coaches and we had to set up more interviews with teams.”
Sunday was a bit more relaxing. There were a few more interviews to do, but overall Watkins had time on his hands in advance of a Monday that got off to an early start.
“Sunday came around and it was more of a chill day for me since I got in on Saturday,” Watkins said. “I had more meetings with team doing interviews and things like that. Overall though Sunday was a chill day for me.”
Monday began with an 8:30 a.m. weigh-in.
“This morning we had the weigh-in and this afternoon was practice with meetings mixed in between,” Watkins said. “The weigh-in was kind of strange because you’re sitting behind the curtain so you don’t know what’s over that at first, but when you get to the stairs and you see everyone you can say like woah to yourself but it’s all part of the process.”
Monday was also the first time that Watkins had hit the practice field since the day he walked off of Florida Field following the Florida State game in November.
“At first I was kind of rusty since I haven’t played football in over a month,” Watkins said. “Practice today wasn’t tougher than Florida’s practices but it was a lot faster pace but that may be because I was just getting into the routine of things again. Overall though I think I had a good practice today.”
From here on out the players will have jammed packed schedules with more practice which for Watkins he says its chance to shine and show scouts what he does well.
“The rest of the week I want to show scouts how I can perform on the field,” Watkins said. “Today I’m pretty sure they saw me challenging receivers at the line because I didn’t want to play off the ball. I think I showed scouts today that I can run well and that I can play on the line against receivers.”
Watkins is using the week to serve as an ambassador to the University of Florida.
“Everywhere I go I’m going to keep wearing my Florida helmet,” Watkins said. “When I’m walking around the hotel I’m always wearing my Gator gear and letting everyone know where I’m from. Go Gators!”