Houston Texans QB Deshaun Watson made a breathtaking start to his NFL career in 2017 before his season was cut short due to injury.
The former Clemson standout was in the MVP conversation when he went down with a knee injury after just seven games. And, it seems that his promising start to life in the NFL has given him huge confidence and even bigger aspirations for the rest of his career.
Watson appeared on Good Morning Football on Friday and made some rather bold comments about his ambition to one day overtake Tom Brady as the greatest to play the position.
"If Tom wins, it's going to six, right? I want to be at seven," Watson said.
"Whatever it takes to be the best, the greatest, and not just for me, but for any athlete, especially quarterback ... if you don't want to chase Tom Brady and [be] above him, you're selling yourself short. I always put my mentality with [being] the best, and Tom Brady is the best right now, so whatever I have to do to get to that level at age 40, that's what I'm going to do."
Brady is going into his eighth Super Bowl this Sunday in Minnesota. Anything close to that number would be remarkable for Watson, but it is not unfathomable.
The 22-year-old is a proven winner and has championship experience having taken Clemson to two College Football Playoff title games in his two seasons as a starter.
He went 1-1 in those championship games, both against Nick Saban and Alabama.
The young signal caller has something about him, a widely discussed 'it' factor that is rarely seen and made an enormous impact in his six starts for Houston in 2017.
After a brief experiment with Tom Savage as the starter, Bill O'Brien thrust his first round pick into the starting role in week two.
Watson didn't disappoint. He completed 61.8% of his passes in seven games, throwing for 1,699 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions. His rookie passer rating broke the century mark (103.0) and he displayed his ability as a true dual threat QB with 269 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
His four touchdown, 402 yard passing game in a tight loss in Seattle was a game to behold and a performance that drew rave reviews from members of the Seahawks defense.
The rookie torched the Legion of Boom like nobody had ever before, something that thoroughly impressed Seahawks corner Richard Sherman.
The four-time All Pro said: "You played the best game any quarterback has ever played against us, and we've played all the legends."
In that incredible game, Watson became the first quarterback in NFL history to post a game of 400 yards passing, 4 touchdowns and 50 rushing yards. His 19 touchdown passes through seven games are also an NFL record for the start of a career, bettering Hall of Famer Kurt Warner's record.
Watson is already achieving great things in the NFL, and his impact on the Texans was blatant to see when he went down with a devastating ACL injury in practice. Without him, Houston fell to a dampening 4-12 record and produced a series of underwhelming offensive performances.
The young quarterback is set to be back for OTA's and the Texans will hope he hasn't lost a stride due to the injury.
Though his comments regarding Brady's achievements are certainly bold, the way he has started his career it wouldn't be a surprise to see him win multiple championships and MVP awards.
Winning 6 plus Super Bowls will be incredibly challenging no matter how could he becomes, but his relentless pursuit of greatness will certainly be worth keeping an eye on.