Menelik Watson

Menelik Watson

Watson with the Oakland Raiders
No. 75 Denver Broncos
Position:	Offensive tackle
Personal information
Date of birth:	(1988-12-22) 22 December 1988 (age 28)
Place of birth:	Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Height:	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight:	315 lb (143 kg)
Career information
High school:	Manchester (GB) Burnage
College:	Florida State
NFL Draft:	2013 / Round: 2 / Pick: 42
Career history
Oakland Raiders (2013–2016) Denver Broncos (2017–present)
Roster status:	Active
Career highlights and awards
ACC Champion (2012)
Career NFL statistics as of 2016
Games played: 27 Games started: 17 Player stats at NFL.com

Menelik Watson (born 22 December 1988) is an American football offensive tackle for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State.

Watson was born into a single-parent family of four brothers and a sister raised on the Anson Estate in Longsight, Greater Manchester, England; his mother, originally from Jamaica, worked as an office cleaner to support the family.

At Burnage High School, he excelled at sport. However, he broke his right ankle in 2001 while playing football in the park, meaning that he could not progress in his hopes of playing for Manchester City. Advised by a doctor not to play any more sports, he eventually joined the school basketball team, where he was spotted in a local tournament by American coach Rob Orellana, who signed him up for his basketball academy based in the Canary Islands.

Watson has a daughter Orellana—named in honour of his mentor Rob—who lives in Manchester with her mother.

Watson played college basketball for Marist College, which he attended from 2009 to 2010.

However, after it became clear that even at 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 m) Watson was too short to play power forward, Orellana transferred Watson to Saddleback College where he played American football for the first time. Watson played right tackle, opposite of left tackle Kyle Long. After a single year at Saddleback, he transferred to Florida State University, where he started 12 of 13 games for the Florida State Seminoles football team during the 2012 season, allowing just one quarterback sack.