Sports
Gaucho Made Regular Season NFL Debut Sunday
Menelik Watson got more time on the field than expected Sunday versus the Philadelphia Eagles.
Former Saddleback College Gaucho Menelik Watson made his regular season NFL debut Sunday versus the Philadelphia Eagles.
The 6'5", 315-pound Oakland Raiders offensive tackle had been expected to debut on special teams. But when starting right tackle Matt McCants injured his foot late in the second quarter, Watson filled in to replace him, The San Jose Mercury News reports.
"By all accounts, (he) held his own," according to NBC Bay Area.
Watson told reporters he wasn't nervous filling in for McCants.
"They’re men out there," he said. "It’s not machines or aliens we’re playing against, it’s just men. I’m never nervous, whoever it is. It doesn’t matter to me.”
The Raiders signed Watson in April to play for the Oakland Raiders. Since then injuries led him to a bumpy start.
He started training camp with a calf injury. After a brief return to practice, it took Watson 10 minutes of play before reaggravating that injury.
He was back in pads on the last day of training camp, just in time to start in the last preseason game at left tackle, a position he'd never played before.
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