Even With Contract Extension, Christian Watson Targets Aggressive Return

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The one-year contract extension that Christian Watson signed with the Green Bay Packers takes “a little pressure” off his comeback from a torn ACL, he said on Monday.

Not that Watson is taking the foot off the gas.

Watson opened the regular season on the physically unable to perform list, which means his return-to-play window could open on the Monday following the team’s Week 5 bye.

“I’d assume whenever my window opens up, I’ll be able to work in a little bit,” Watson said.

Watson, who suffered the injury during the regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears on Jan. 5, has made a quick recovery from the injury. As he talked to reporters, he was a little more than eight months past the injury. He’s done everything, he said, other than practice.

So, what will the decision come down to once he’s eligible to start practicing? First and foremost, it’s getting clearance from the medical staff. The second part is where the contract comes into play. Without it, Watson would have been under his final season under contract and might have wanted to rush back to position himself for free agency. With it, he can make sure he feels ready.

Completely ready.

“I’ve got to feel 110 percent confident in I’m going to be able to go out there and be Christian Watson and not 90 percent and, honestly, not even 95 percent,” he said. “I need to be 100 percent of Christian Watson before I get out there.”

He’s getting close to that number.

“Definitely,” he said, “but I’ve obviously got to get the live reps, obviously, to get the full feel of it.”

That confidence is coming, meaning that date is coming. After the Packers’ offseason program was complete, he posted video of himself running routes. During training camp, he began sprinting up and down the sideline.

He said he’s “chomping at the bit” to get back on the field.

“I feel like if it was the NFC Championship Game tomorrow, I would be able to go out there and feel confident for sure,” he said. “But, at the end of the day, I got to be as smart as I can with it and not let it be a long-term thing. Nine months is long enough, so I want to get the nine months out the way and come back and be 100 percent Christian Watson and go out there and not have to worry about it anymore.”

Watson, of course, has a history of coming back from injuries. He missed three games as a rookie, eight games in 2023 and two games in 2024. Late last season, he suffered an injured left knee against the Saints in Week 16. He was inactive for Week 17 against the Vikings and came back before he was ready for Week 18 against the Bears.

The ACL injury was to the other knee, but he did say it’ll be important to have confidence in his right knee, and not be compensating for it, when he returns.

“I think it’ll just come down to consistency when I’m getting out there,” Watson said. “Obviously, I don’t want to have any setbacks if I’m able to go out there and feel good but then the next day I’m not feeling that great. Obviously, that’s not where I want to be at. I want to be able to go out there and play, feel good, go out the next day and play and feel good.

“Obviously, my plan is to go out there as soon as I can and feel great, but we’ll see how it is when it happens.”

Watson’s contract extension includes $11.0 million in new money. It includes a signing bonus of almost $6.1 million and a whopping $1.85 million in per-game roster bonuses, so Watson will have to be healthy and stay healthy to collect the full payday.

He opted to sign the contract rather than betting on himself with a solid second half of this season to go along with what he’s put on tape over his career.

“I know what I’m capable of,” he said. “I think that I know what I’m worth as a player when comparing it to the market and whatnot, but it’s a risk and reward when it comes down to it with the injuries that I’ve had in the past and obviously coming back from a major injury like this, so just weighing the risk and weighing the reward of going both ways with it.”

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