If Browns coach Hue Jackson is going to fall in love with Clemson national championship-winning quarterback Deshaun Watson before April’s draft, it won’t happen next week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.
Senior Bowl Executive Director Phil Savage confirmed Wednesday on Twitter that Watson will not attend the showcase. Game officials later released rosters for the event.
Jackson and the Browns will coach in the Senior Bowl this year, and Watson would have played for them on the South team had he accepted the invitation he received.
The Browns own two first-round picks in this year’s draft — the first and 12th overall selections — and need a quarterback as much as any team. The Chicago Bears, who have the third overall pick, will coach the North team.
Players will begin arriving in Mobile on Sunday. Practices will run Tuesday through Thursday. The all-star game will be on Jan. 28.
Coaching Watson throughout the week would have been an invaluable experience for the Browns as they sort through their options at the game’s most important position this offseason.
Watson, North Carolina’s Mitch Trubisky, a Mentor native, and Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer, a Toledo native, are the top-ranked quarterbacks in this year’s draft. Most analysts expect all of them to be picked in the first round.
Of those three juniors, only Watson was eligible to play in the Senior Bowl because he graduated early. Without getting to coach him next week, the Browns won’t have a chance to interact with him until quarterbacks report to the NFL Scouting Combine on March 1 in Indianapolis.
Savage, a former Browns general manager, told the Beacon Journal last week the Browns, Watson, Savage and the Senior Bowl — “everybody involved,” he said — would benefit if the player were to accept his invitation.
“It would be big [for the Browns] because they get a chance to work with him up close and personal,” Savage said. “They get a chance to really see if they believe that he can adapt to what they want him to do, and, of course, it gives them a chance to really be able to make a comparison between he and some of the other quarterbacks that are out there that they’re going to be trying to evaluate.”
Savage also explained why he thought Watson could help “his quest to go as high as possible in the draft” by attending the Senior Bowl.
“The question mark on all these college quarterbacks, particularly ones that have played in the spread [offense like Watson], is can they make the transition to an NFL-style system? This would give him an opportunity to showcase that transition,” Savage said. “Although it’s a small sample size, that would be a factor.
“The other thing because of Deshaun’s leadership traits, the quality of his character, those things would shine through in this kind of setting very quickly, and he gets a head start on all the other quarterbacks that are either not in the game or are not eligible for the game that have to wait until the combine before they get in front of the teams.”
But Watson will instead let his clutch performance in Clemson’s 35-31 victory over top-ranked Alabama in the College Football Playoff title game on Jan. 9 serve as a lasting memory until the combine.
The quarterbacks who will play for the Browns in the Senior Bowl as members of the South team are California’s Davis Webb (projected by NFLDraftScout.com to become a fourth- or fifth-round pick), Tennessee’s Josh Dobbs (projected sixth- or seventh-round pick) and Tiffin’s Antonio Pipkin (projected to go undrafted).
The quarterbacks who will play for the Bears on the North team are Pittsburgh’s Nate Peterman (projected fourth-round pick), Iowa’s C.J. Beathard (projected seventh-round pick) and Colorado’s Sefo Liufau (projected seventh-round pick).
Like Watson, two projected first-round selections from Alabama — defensive lineman Jonathan Allen and linebacker Reuben Foster — declined their invitations to the Senior Bowl.
NFLDraftScout.com analyst Dane Brugler’s three top-rated Senior Bowl participants will all play for the Browns on the South team: Alabama tight end O.J. Howard (projected first-round pick), Western Kentucky offensive tackle Forrest Lamp (projected second- or third-round pick) and Mississippi tight end Evan Engram (projected third-round pick).
Michigan linebacker and Hudson High School graduate Ben Gedeon (projected seventh-round pick or priority free agent) will be coached by the Bears as a member of the North team.
Coaching staff update
Jackson witnessed Bob Wylie guide the offensive line of the Oakland Raiders to an impressive turnaround in 2011 and is hoping for some deja vu in Cleveland.
The Browns hired Wylie as their offensive line coach, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday. The Beacon Journal previously reported the move would likely be made.
When Jackson was the head coach of the Raiders in 2011, Wylie helped them tie for fourth in the NFL in fewest sacks allowed with 25. The season before Wylie’s arrival, only five teams surrendered more sacks than the Raiders when they gave up 44.
Jackson seeks a similar transformation after firing offensive line coach Hal Hunter last week. The Browns allowed 66 sacks this past season, 17 more than any other NFL team.
The Browns are the eighth NFL team to hire Wylie, 65. He has also coached for six colleges and two Canadian Football League teams, spending the past three seasons as the offensive line coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Time to talk
The Browns will hold an introductory news conference for new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams at noon Thursday at team headquarters.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.