Draft a case of surges and slides

Associated Press

The first round of the NFL draft had players from Temple and Western Michigan off the board before players from Alabama. And in a draft where none of the quarterbacks looked like locks in the first round, three were taken in the first 12 picks.

The draft always provides surprises. As usual, some players were off the board earlier than expected while others had to wait longer than most expected.

Surges

Davis didn’t work out at the combine or pro day because of injuries, and the conventional wisdom was that would make Clemson’s Mike Williams the first receiver taken.

Instead, the Titans grabbed Davis over Williams, who went two picks later to the Chargers.

John Ross a wide receiver from Washington went to Cincinnati at No. 9. Ross was a lock to go in the first round after running a combine record 4.22-second 40-yard dash and the Bengals could not pass up on that speed.

Patrick Mahomes II, a quarterback from Texas Tech, went to Kansas City at No. 10. The gun-slinging Mahomes has a ton of upside, but needs polish.

The Bears surprisingly traded up from No. 3 to No. 2 to take North Carolina’s Mitchell Trubisky, who had been speculated as the first quarterback off the board.

Slides

Reuben Foster a linebacker from Alabama slipped to the 49ers at No. 31. Foster was touted as a top-10 pick, but he had a rough go of it in the postseason draft process and fell hard.

Jonathan Allen, a defensive lineman from Alabama, went to Washington at No. 17. Another Alabama player with a shoulder issue that cost him millions of dollars.

Allen was in the discussion to push Myles Garrett to be No. 1 overall at the end of the college season. Instead, a deep talent pool and an early run on quarterbacks helped push Allen down the board.

Brad Arnett has owned a private training facility for 12 years in Waukesha, Wis., about 25 minutes from T.J.’s home in Pewaukee. In that time, he says proudly, “I’ve worked with a Watt for 10 years now.”

J.J. began working with Arnett when he was a junior at Pewaukee High School. Derek and T.J. began when they were freshmen.

“Everyone always compares the brothers to the oldest brother,” Arnett said. “Did they come in with the same attributes? Well, eventually they got to that, but at the beginning they didn’t because of maturity. But it didn’t take long to see the similarities between all three, from a concept of attitude, commitment and work ethic. With them, it was not just to do things right, but to never get it wrong.”

Connie and John Watt would serve their growing sons two dinners a day — one at 4:30 p.m. after practice or workouts, another at 8 p.m. They would pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for them to eat between classes. They did that because their sons were burning so many calories working out and playing sports.

“Does T.J. work harder than everybody else? I’m not going to say he works harder,” Arnett said. “But what separates all three of them is they consistently do it. When it’s time to go to work, it’s going to get done.”

It has become almost legendary around Pewaukee, a city of 13,000 west of Milwaukee and about an hour east

Christmas Day, 2017, Steelers vs. Texans at NRG Stadium in Houston. Younger brother T.J. vs. big brother J.J. First time since they were kids in Pewaukee.

“It will be weird to be on the same field as J.J. in shoulder pads.” T.J. said. “I played with him in the backyard, and I have seen him play a bunch, but we’ve never been on the same field in full uniforms, competitively, before. I think that will be a really cool and kind of weird day for me.”

J.J. Watt said he already has texted Antonio Brown — his teammate for one year at Central Michigan — and told him to “look over my brother and be sure to haze him a little extra for me.”

But he also had a message for his younger brother: “He has to try a Primanti’s sandwich for me because I never had one.”.