Ravens Being Cautious With Sammy Watkins

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens envision wide receiver Sammy Watkins being a key playmaker for quarterback Lamar Jackson this season.

The goal is to keep him healthy and on the field.

Watkins has been dealing with the minor aches and pains of training camp.

As a result, the Ravens have been cautious with him, giving him a reprieve from practices and holding him out of the preseason games.

"He's OK. It's not a serious injury," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "We're just trying to rest some things that he's dealing with that are normal camp things. We felt like it wasn't really worth it at this point. It'd be better to get him 100%."

This past season, Watkins missed six games with a calf injury. Over his career, he has missed 26 games because of injuries and played in all 16 games just once — his rookie year in Buffalo.

The plan all along was to ease him into training camp.

"I talked to coach and his staff; I’m a guy that goes 100% [and] a guy that really doesn’t know better," Watkins said. "I told them that they have to protect me, know when to [not] let me kill my legs and make sure I’m getting good work, but also knowing when to pull back. I think that’s very critical with having a coach that understands that.

"I think that’s why I was successful at the Rams and played [15] games, because I had a good coach who kind of knew when to pull back, when to have those not necessarily rest days, but not doing 100 plays at practice. I was able to go into the game and be successful and feel really good about myself. [When] you feel good, you play good."

Watkins was a highly-touted player from Clemson and was the fourth overall pick by the Buffalo Bills in the 2014 draft. He also spent one season with the Rams (2017) before signing with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Over 86 career games, Watkins has caught 321 passes for 4,665 yards with 33 touchdowns. He'll turn 28 on June 14 so he has plenty of solid football ahead of him. Watkins has the speed to get behind secondaries and does an effective job gaining yards after a reception.

Last season, he finished with 37 receptions on 55 targets for 421 yards and two touchdowns over 10 games in 2020. Watkins also helped the Kansas City Chiefs reach the Super Bowl in each of the past two seasons and that experience will also bode well in Baltimore, which is trying to go further in the playoffs.

Since 2014, he ranks seventh in yards per reception (14.5) among NFL players with 300 or more catches.

Watkins has started six of the seven playoff games in which he appeared from 2017-20. He reached the postseason in each of the past four seasons (2017-20) and was a key member of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LIV victory in 2019. In those seven total postseason contests, he’s recorded 26 receptions for 500 yards (19.2 avg) and one touchdown.