Seems kind of irrational to me to think that a player that was injured much of the year would be the preseason favorite QB, but who is ESPN if not irrational?
When he did play, he was lights out:
Passing: 93/137, 1471 yards, 14TDs, 2 INTs, 188.9 QB Rating
Rushing: 63/200, 5 TDs
He threw the ball half as much as Cole Stoudt and had almost as many yards. Had more passing TDs than Stoudt (6 TDs, 10 INTs). Remember, he wasn't even the starter to begin the season, and missed 5 games due to injury. Extrapolate those numbers over a full season, and those are ridiculous numbers. We like to talk about efficiency for our QB, and those numbers are very efficient. If Dabo had started Watson against FSU, FSU probably would not have won.
The big question about Watson is his durability. He missed a few games due to his had wacking a helmet, then tore his ACL against us.