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Eagles rookie Watkins feeling the pressure

Below the main stage at the NFL draft, down a wide, curving flight of stairs to the lower level of Radio City Music Hall, was a room where the biggest stars of the night met the media last April.

Danny Watkins will make his first start at right guard in Buffalo. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Danny Watkins will make his first start at right guard in Buffalo. (Alex Brandon/AP)Read more

Below the main stage at the NFL draft, down a wide, curving flight of stairs to the lower level of Radio City Music Hall, was a room where the biggest stars of the night met the media last April.

Dozens of folding chairs sat in front of a table where the marquee names took turns: Cam Newton, Patrick Peterson, Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. Behind that was a smaller room you wouldn't notice unless someone pointed it out.

That's where you could find the Eagles' top pick, guard Danny Watkins, his face flushed pink as drops of sweat rolled down from under an Eagles cap and camera lights shone on his face.

Watkins was happy to remain off the main stage, but he couldn't stay there long. After draft night in New York, Watkins was no longer an anonymous guard chosen 23d amid a handful of college luminaries. In Philadelphia, he was No. 1, and everyone wanted a piece of him.

The attention is new to Watkins, and it has been more than he was ready for. He's still adjusting to the public demands of his job, but the spotlight will get only hotter Sunday when he gets his first start.

As the Eagles' top selection, his play will be dissected, discussed, and debated. Talk itself doesn't matter, but how Watkins handles it does. Excelling in the NFL requires talent first, but also the fortitude to cope with immense scrutiny, pointed questions, and fevered opinions.

Watkins has been uncomfortable with the limelight from the moment he arrived in a city where patience is not a common virtue.

On the day after the draft, the Eagles shuttled the former firefighter to a local firehouse for a dream photo-op. But Watkins kept shooing the cameras away, just wanting to be one of the guys, not realizing that the cameras were the whole point.

As a first-round pick in the draft, the zeros on the end of his paycheck come with public pressure, expectations, and a horde of reporters attached. Fans pin big hopes on No. 1 picks, franchises expect them to be shining new faces for their organizations, and reporters want quotes.

Watkins, 26, is older than most rookies, but he is far less experienced with those kind of demands.

Last year's No. 1 pick, Brandon Graham, gave interviews in high school and played at Michigan, one of college football's most well-known programs. At his first training camp, the smiling rookie shook hands with every reporter as if he were running for mayor of Lehigh.

The year before that, the top pick was Jeremy Maclin, who as a college sophomore was quoted in USA Today and touted as a potential Heisman candidate. Maclin has mastered the athlete's art of answering questions in a businesslike way without actually revealing anything.

Watkins, on the other hand, grew up in Kelowna, British Columbia, and has played football for only four years. At Baylor, his main media demands consisted of talking to a few local reporters after practice each week. He was a firefighter before he was a football player and plays a position low on glory and high on bruising work.

Watkins is affable when chatting with reporters in small groups and maybe too honest for his own good, admitting struggles other athletes cautiously shield.

Coming to Philadelphia, facing a crush of inquiring strangers at his locker every day, having fans approach him in grocery stores, was more overwhelming than anything he has faced on the field, Watkins said last week.

"I'm just a regular guy," he said. "I've never had that before."

If questions from reporters can rattle an athlete, it raises questions about his ability to handle 70,000 screaming voices while linebackers shift positions, hoping to sow indecision. It makes you wonder how Watkins will cope with the inevitable public critiques he will face.

Watkins' unease with the media is a sign of a man not entirely comfortable in a starring role. To be fair, he is still learning on the job. Perhaps in time, the blocks and the interviews will come more smoothly.

Watkins has had some time off center stage. But he returned to the forefront when he rejoined the starting lineup for Sunday's game.

He was camera-shy again. With reporters waiting by his locker, Watkins ducked into a private room and had to be coaxed into talking. He took questions planted atop a too-small table with a speaker- phone on it and politely answered while looking as comfortable as someone awaiting a tetanus shot.

This was after a promotion.

The Eagles didn't help Watkins by anointing him a starter before he even showed up to training camp, ratcheting up the pressure even more. For whatever reason, he wasn't ready for even the dim lights of preseason.

Now Watkins goes back into the spotlight in a game the Eagles must have. On the field in Buffalo on Sunday there will be no side room, no quiet place to escape the glare.