2016 Heisman Trophy: Case for and against each finalist

QB Deshaun Watson, Clemson

Deshaun Watson was also a Heisman finalist last year. He went on to finish third in the voting with 1,165 total votes. He finished behind Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey and last year’s winner in Derrick Henry from Alabama.

Case for

Watson has now led Clemson to back-to-back CFP appearances. Last year he got them to the championship only to lose to Alabama. This year, Watson was 86 yards off of throwing for 4,000 yards. He also threw 37 touchdown passes, six of which came in a 56-7 annihilation of Clemson’s rival, South Carolina. Watson is a big guy that stands at 6’3”, 215 pounds. Along with his arm, Watson is a great runner. He won’t beat you with speed, but his physical nature makes him one of the hardest players to get to the ground.

When compared to Lamar Jackson, he doesn’t have the speed that Jackson has. His physical nature however, always him to be just as explosive and deadly a runner as Jackson. He also owns the head-to-head matchup with Jackson which helped Clemson win the ACC and get to the CFP.

Case against 

Clemson played in a bunch of close games that should never have been close. Clemson allowed teams such as Troy, NC State and Pittsburgh to stick with them, with the latter pulling off an upset.

All of those games were home games for Clemson as well. Yet for how good Watson has been down the stretch this year, the biggest case against Watson is that Lamar Jackson is just too far gone. All year, Watson has been trying to catch Jackson in the Heisman race. As it is, it may have been to little to late.

If Jackson truly way ahead of Watson, then Watson will make the trip to New York for the second straight year and come home with nothing again.