Jason Watkins (born July 10, 1985) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

. He was signed by the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division, and play their home ga ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2009. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Watkins was also a member of the

New York Sentinels New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

and

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

Early years

Watkins was born in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. He attended

Lake Gibson High School Lake Gibson High School is located in Lakeland, Florida, and was established in 1979. Athletics Lake Gibson offers a wide variety of sports for boys and girls including: Baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, weightl ...

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal c ...

as a junior and senior, playing football only two years and earning Class 4A all-state, all-county and all-conference first-team accolades as a senior. He participated in the 2003 Cali-Florida Bowl.

College career

Watkins received an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...

team from

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Watkins helped the Gators win two

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

(

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

and

) as member of the offensive line that paved the way for

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard ...

-winning

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

Tim Tebow. In his senior season, Watkins was named honorable mention All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

by the

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, as he produced 78 knockdowns to go with 12 touchdown-resulting blocks. He graded 81.71% and was part of a front wall that gave up just 16 sacks. The Gators went on to capture the national title behind an offense that averaged 445.07 yards and 43.64 points per game

Professional career

Pre-draft

Houston Texans

Watkins was signed on April 28, 2009 by the

after going undrafted in the

2009 NFL Draft The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 25 and 26, 2009. T ...

. He was waived on September 5.

New York Sentinels

Watkins played for the

of the United Football League in 2009.

Buffalo Bills

After playing in the UFL, Watkins was signed to the

practice squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

on November 24. After his contract expired following the season, he was re-signed to a future contract on January 5, 2010.

References

Bibliography

*Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). .

External links

Buffalo Bills bioJust Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watkins, Jason 1985 births Living people Players of American football from New Orleans American football offensive tackles Florida Gators football players Houston Texans players New York Sentinels players Buffalo Bills players