Id love to know how McClay viewed Watt and if he advocated for him.
Its easy to look back in hindsight, but before the draft many of the pundits viewed Watt to be a better prospect than Charlton. It wasnt like there was a huge Charlton contingent that saw him as a better player. Am I recalling correctly?
After the draft he parroted the company line about Watt not being a scheme fit on the team's radio show or whatever, did he actually believe it? Or at least did he believe that Watt wasn't enough of the better prospect to warrant the supposed lack of scheme fit?
I don't know.
But he did personally tell me that they wouldn't spend a 1st on a player who would be used like the Vikings used Anthony Barr, and ironically how we'd eventually end up using Parsons, which is basically moving them around the formation quite a bit, generally as a SLB/off-ball LB in base sets, and then edge rushing/blitzing on passing downs.
Could've just been brushing me off although my description and his answer was pretty specific.