{"id":97957,"date":"2025-08-26T09:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T09:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97957\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T09:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T09:25:14","slug":"buccaneers-will-not-pay-desmond-watson-to-lose-more-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97957\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers Will Not Pay Desmond Watson To Lose More Weight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DesmondiStockphoto \/ \u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"Carbonatix<\/p>\n

Audio By Carbonatix<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers surprisingly decided to cut Desmond Watson like they did Shilo Sanders. They did not choose to move the monstrous defensive tackle to the Non-Football Injury list.<\/p>\n

That would\u2019ve allowed the team to pay him any salary it wanted while he continued to work toward his weight loss goal.<\/p>\n

Watson would\u2019ve then been available at any point during the upcoming NFL<\/a> season. Instead, he is now a free agent. He might make his professional debut in 2025. He might not. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n

Is Desmond Watson losing weight?<\/p>\n

The last update we received directly from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came on Aug. 19. Head coach Todd Bowles sounded optimistic about the progress of Desmond Watson<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n

He wanted to get a plan in place for the 22-year-old rookie by the end of the week. He would\u2019ve loved to get him on the field sooner than later, especially while the team deals with injuries on that side of the ball.<\/p>\n

As it would turn out, the plan is to let him walk.<\/p>\n

Watson remained on the sideline during the final game of the preseason. He was officially waived by the organization on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"Desmond\u00a9 Barry Reeger-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

According to Fox Sports reporter Greg Auman<\/a>, Watson\u2019s progress was kept completely under wraps. Nobody outside of the coaching staff and front office knew whether he has been losing weight throughout training camp or how much weight he still needs to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know a specific number,\u201d Auman wrote. \u201c400? 380? But I also don\u2019t know if he\u2019s close to being there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watson was listed at 449 pounds as a senior at Florida. He weighed 464 at his Pro Day.<\/p>\n

As of April 26, Watson was down from 464 to 437. That was a 27-pound difference in a little over four weeks. Unfortunately, it sounds like he arrived to training camp closer to 450.<\/p>\n

That would require him somewhere between 50 and 70 pounds to reach Auman\u2019s estimated numbers.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers cut him anyway.<\/p>\n

Desmond Watson is obviously much more valuable on the field than off. However, unlike Shilo Sanders, the team may not have had to pay him to keep him on the roster. Kind of.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay could\u2019ve moved Watson to the Non-Football Injury\/Illness list but chose not to do so.<\/p>\n

That would\u2019ve allow the Buccaneers to supervise his conditioning and diet, retain his rights, and then at some point open a 21-day practice window before they had to make any kind of move. Meanwhile, they do not have to count him toward the 53-man roster limit.<\/p>\n

They also wouldn\u2019t have to pay him.<\/p>\n

Unlike players on the regular Injured Reserve list, players on the NFI do not automatically receive their base salary. NFI players are paid at the team\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n

More often than not, the organization comes to an agreement with the play on how much he will be paid during the time he spends on the NFI list to keep that player in its good graces. It doesn\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n

Thus, it seemed Desmond Watson was headed to the Non-Football Injury list. He got cut instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"iStockphoto \/ \u00a9 Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images Audio By Carbonatix The Tampa Bay Buccaneers surprisingly decided to cut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,56955,514,82,1733],"class_list":["post-97957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-desmond-watson","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}