Packers’ Christian Watson Returns to Practice; Could He Play on Sunday?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers receiver Christian Watson was designated for return from injured reserve and practiced on Monday. Is it possible Watson will play against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, exactly 40 weeks after he tore the ACL in his right knee?

“I always want to play,” Watson said. “But, at the end of the day, obviously, I want to be as smart as possible, too. So, if you were to ask me that on Friday after I got a couple good workdays in, then probably be a little bit more confident. But I just want to stack days. As long as I continue to feel good, obviously, my goal is to play as soon as possible.”

It might seem farfetched for Watson to play, since he sat out all of training camp and the preseason, meaning there’s a considerable amount of rust to knock off. However, he said Monday’s practice isn’t really anything he hasn’t been doing for “probably two months now.” He did individual drills on Monday, looking fast going downfield and precise in his cuts while catching passes from Jordan Love.

“I’d say the only hurdle really is just getting live reps and getting back into everything,” Watson said. “Just knocking the rust off, getting back into full football mode, live bullets.”

Monday’s practice marked nine months and one day since the injury. That’s a remarkably fast comeback from a serious injury.

How did he do it?

“Just a lot of work, honestly. Every day,” he said. “I was kind of giving the training room some grief last week because I still didn’t get any days off last week, either. I haven’t really taken a day off since my surgery. It’s just been a long road. I’ve trusted in my doctors and my team back home and trusting in the training room, as well, and just getting after it.”

While Monday’s practice wasn’t the ultimate goal and certainly isn’t the final destination, it was an important milepost in his recovery.

“It meant a lot just to see that kind of payoff,” he said. “Four months ago when I was in it, I didn’t go into every day smiling and happy about it. So, to see all of it pay off definitely means a lot.”

Here's our story on #Packers WR Christian Watson being designated to return from injured reserve and practicing today, updated with about 50 seconds of Watson practice video.https://t.co/Rab0OxiijG
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) October 6, 2025

Interestingly, Packers defensive end Rashan Gary’s returned to practice nine months and one day after the ACL tear sustained at Detroit in November 2023.

“Man, it was great,” Gary said on Monday. “I was telling him, don’t hide back the smiles too much. It was great seeing him back out there because he worked his butt off to get there.”

Watson went through drills inside the Don Hutson Center on Monday with no protection on his surgically repaired right knee.

“Honestly, my trust and confidence in the knee is honestly 100 percent,” he said. “I’ve tried to remove any doubt or negative thoughts about it, just trusting the work that I put in and understand the things that I did today, I’ve done them thousands of times at this point.

“So, that’s my main thing. I don’t want to do anything that I haven’t done in a controlled setting. Obviously, as I’m able to get into those more uncontrolled settings, just continuing to have that confidence will be big.”

There are two significant barriers to get through before he’s allowed to play.

One, he said he has to “continue to stack days,” meaning it’ll be important to roll out of bed on Tuesday morning feeling as good as he did on Monday morning. Two, it’s those uncontrolled settings – the 11-on-11 reps at practice – and the feeling of running a route not against air but against a defender and then having to elude him after the catch.

“I just want to be me,” he said. “I just want to feel 100 percent confident that I’m the player that I know I’m capable of being – a 100 percent healthy Christian Watson.”

Monday was a big step in that direction. The team will practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before hosting the Bengals on Sunday. After this week’s game, the Packers will play back-to-back road games against the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Or the team could wait until the 21-day practice window closes on Oct. 27 to add him to the 53-man roster before the Nov. 2 home game against the Carolina Panthers.

“Today I felt like I was 100 percent,” he said. “I just need to continue to stack days. If I can stack a week of feeling 100 percent, then I’m sure that confidence will come and I’ll be ready to go.”

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