Packers Sign Watkins to One-Year Deal
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have signed veteran receiver Sammy Watkins to a one-year contract, a source said on Thursday.
The team made it official on Thursday afternoon. Multiple reports said the deal is worth up to $4 million.
The fourth pick of the 2014 NFL Draft by Buffalo, Watkins looked like one of the next great receivers when he caught 65 passes for 982 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie and 60 passes for 1,047 yards and nine touchdowns during his second season.
However, he played in only eight games in 2016 and his career has never gotten back on track. Buffalo traded him to the Los Angeles Rams just before the 2017 season. With Packers coach Matt LaFleur serving as offensive coordinator, Watkins caught 39 passes for 593 yards and eight touchdowns.
Watkins joined the Chiefs in free agency on a three-year contract worth $48 million. Even with Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, he averaged 43 receptions, 538 yards and 2.7 touchdowns from 2018 through 2020.
He spent last year with the Baltimore Ravens alongside Lamar Jackson. Playing on a one-year, $5 million deal, Watkins caught 27 passes but had five drops, according to Sports Info Solutions. He played in 13 games – missing three due to injury and the December game vs. Green Bay due to COVID.
During the final five games of the regular season, Watkins played in four. He averaged about 15 snaps per game and didn’t catch any of his three targets.
Declining production notwithstanding, Watkins will provide another veteran receiver for a team that didn’t have many of them following the trade of Davante Adams and the free-agent departure of Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
The signing likely won’t change the Packers’ draft plans – receiver remains a critical need when they are on the clock with their two first-round picks in 14 days – but it will help ease the transition that quarterback Aaron Rodgers faces without his favorite target from the past six seasons.
While receiver is one of the deepest positions in this year’s draft, there is no guarantee the Packers will get a Watkins-like Year 1 splash.
Over the last decade’s worth of drafts, from 2012 through 2021, a total of 21 receivers were selected between No. 18 (four picks before Green Bay’s spot at No. 22) and No. 32 (four picks after Green Bay’s spot at No. 28).
Of that group, only two receivers finished their rookie season with 1,000-plus yards. One was Justin Jefferson, the 22nd pick of the 2020 draft by Minnesota who dominated his rookie campaign with 88 receptions for 1,400 yards in seven scores. The other was Kelvin Benjamin, the No. 28 pick of the 2014 draft by Carolina who turned 73 receptions into 1,008 yards and nine scores.
Calvin Ridley (No. 26 by Atlanta in 2018) and DeAndre Hopkins (No. 27 by Houston in 2013) also topped 800 yards as rookies.
Those four strong rookie seasons were countered by four major busts.
A.J. Jenkins, the 30th pick of the 2012 draft by San Francisco, was a healthy scratch for most of his rookie season and dropped his only target. Laquon Treadwell, the 23rd pick of the 2016 draft by Minnesota, caught one pass in nine games. Josh Doctson, the 22nd pick of the 2016 draft by Washington, missed most of his rookie season due to an Achilles injury and caught only two passes. N’Keal Harry, the 32nd pick of the 2019 season by New England, missed the first half of the season with an ankle injury and caught only 12 passes.
Generally, rookie receivers have become more productive in recent years. The four receivers taken from No. 20 through No. 49 last year, Kadarius Toney, Rashod Bateman, Elijah Moore and Rondale Moore, averaged 45.5 receptions and 477 yards.
“Obviously a couple of those wideouts in the top end of the class last year, performed really well,” said receivers coach and passing-game coordinator Jason Vrable, who was on Buffalo’s staff for Watkins’ first two NFL seasons. “No one’s a for-sure bet, but I think it’s an accumulation of things. When you go on the field, to be confident, and that’s the hardest part – getting a guy to truly walk out there and look across from him and see Jaire (Alexander) and truly believe in yourself, like ‘I can beat this guy one on one. Not only do I know my route, I know the details of it, but then I’ve got to beat a guy who’s a dominating force on the opposing side of the ball.’
“Typically, every team has an elite corner, so you’re going up against guys that you’ve just got to have that confidence. I think that, for some guys, takes a little bit more time than others. You look back at Davante, I obviously drafted Sammy in that class, and Sammy was a great player, but I think Davante was a two-star coming out who continued to develop and progress, right, he was the [ninth] receiver drafted. It was a continued climb. He got his confidence there, he learned the playbook, he learned what Aaron was looking for, maybe what the staffs were looking for. So, it’s just a gradual growth and everyday finding a way to get 1 percent better.”
