Watson on the running backs, Pickett comparisons, tight ends and more

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Shawn Watson met the media after Wednesday's practice, and here's a full rundown of everything he had to say.

As far as your running backs, every coach would like to have the one bell cow; do you have anyone who is emerging as being capable of being the lead back?
Watson: I think we have two really good ones, and that’s a good problem. Darrin has played well and so has Q. I like what both of those big, experienced backs give us, and they’re really highly competitive with each other and Andre is rolling those guys. They’ve both looked really good. I think they feed off each other, and that helps us. Anymore in today’s football, you have different backs that bring you different styles, and I like what’s happening with the two younger guys. Sibs’ has done a really nice job and AJ has. The two older guys give you a lot of thump and experience, they’re great in protection; I think they know their assignments always and they really are feeding off each other, competing against one another, and that’s what’s been fun. So for us, it’s a good thing. I think both of them are definitely guys we’re going to play.

Pickett and Narduzzi have both said that Kenny has been pretty perfect in terms of not throwing any picks this camp. Have you ever seen that from a quarterback, that level of ball security, especially at his age?
Watson: I have. Teddy Bridgewater. Same type of production, same type of ball security. He’s like Teddy in that respect a lot.

Is he processing the reads so quick that it’s all falling into place for him?
Watson: It’s in his blood now, you know? It’s in his DNA. He’s gotten a lot of reps at it. He works really hard off the field at it. And my experience has been that when a guy works that hard, their level of play goes up, because it really does become instinctual as opposed to, “I have to process and if this happens, I have to do this.” I mean, Teddy’s doing - excuse me, my man Kenny is doing everything like that: he’s just reacting to football.

You’ve made that comparison between Kenny and Teddy before in the spring and maybe even last year; what else do you see that links those guys?
Watson: Where Kenny is like Teddy is in his work ethic. He has natural football instincts. He’s a natural passer. And he’s able to absorb a lot of information. He gets situational football. He’s a sponge that way. You can tell that he’s put a lot of thought and time into it, besides playing. Playing gives you an edge with repetition, but I think you have to think about it a lot, and I know both of these young men’s example to me has been, they think about it all the time. The situational management, like two-minute, like nickel downs, red zone throwing, I mean, all of the little things that are critical to winning football at the quarterback position, they think about it, where a lot of dudes don’t think about it. They’re thinking about the pass game.

Kenny, like Teddy, he knows the protections. He can get up there and put on a clinic. It’s a lot of hard work and I think he really loves it. I know he does. And you see it come out in him instinctually.

From what we’ve seen, we keep seeing Dontavius out there running with the one’s. What has he done to elevate himself?
Watson: He’s highly competitive. He’s made a lot of plays. He knows how to use his body and his skill set because he’s a physical receiver. And he will make the competitive play. He’s a very effective, natural route-runner; the instincts we just talked about at quarterback, he’s got as a receiver. He’s got those natural receiving instincts. He knows how to use his body, use his hands, how to get in and out of breaks. And a lot of stuff he does is natural, so you can see in his work - I think instinctual players have put a lot of time into it, and he’s one of those guys.

How much work is Paris going to get with you on the offensive side of the ball?
Watson: We dabble with Paris. We’re trying to just teach him enough to see what he can do. We’ll give him a whirl, you know, with a package, and we’ll see; probably this Saturday, we’ll give him a little bit more. We’re not trying to overload him right now because he’s competing a lot on defense, so we’ve really just tried to teach him the fundamentals of what we would like for him to do. We’ve asked him to do it in team situations on occasion, kind of emphasized it in a drill and then we’ll give him back to the defense. So we’re growing him right now, to answer your question.

How much do you have to fight, because you had the same situation last year?
Watson: Not at all. Those guys are great. Pat’s awesome about that. We’re trying to get - you know, he was a very gifted kid as an offensive player in high school. He’s a natural playmaker. So we want to use his talents. He’s got nice skills to go with it.

When you talk about seeing what he can do, is that more running with the ball like Jordan, catching the ball?
Watson: It’s a little bit of everything. We’re just trying to see what he can do, what he can handle without overloading him. We’re giving him things to kind of expose or reveal his playmaking abilities as a runner, as a passer - as a pass-receiver.

Do you feel like you can get more production out of your tight ends this year?
Watson: I hope. I have always been a big tight end guy, and I love the tight ends. I think right now Tyler has had a good camp; he’s elevated his game. Will Gragg has helped the room. Jimmy Medure has been great in the room; he can do a lot of things. And Grant Carrigan has been probably my most pleasant surprise, and I don’t know if surprise is the right word, but he has come a long way as a run-blocker, which is where he really needed to grow. He’s really doing a nice job. So all four of those guys - and I like Kaymar as a freshman, too. Kaymar is very, you know, you look at his - he’s going to be really good at that position in college. It’s a good fit for us.