Getty Former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins celebrates a Super Bowl victory on February 2, 2020.
Earlier today at 11:49 a.m., it was reported that former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins was visiting with the Green Bay Packers.
The #Packers are hosting WR Sammy Watkins on a visit today, sources say. No deal as of now but stay tuned.
NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo noted that “no deal” was in place at the time, but told fans to “stay tuned.” It turns out that he was right, as news came in a little over two hours later that Watkins had agreed to a deal.
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Watkins Replaces MVS in Green Bay
NFL reporter Jordan Schultz was first on the follow-up, tweeting that Watkins “is signing a one-year deal [with] the Packers.”
Sammy Watkins’ deal is worth up to $4M, per source. Helluva get for Aaron Rodgers and the #Packers.
He added that the contract is “worth up to $4M, per source.”
Ironically, Watkins should help replace Patrick Mahomes’ new weapon Marques Valdes-Scantling, who left Green Bay in free agency. Now with back-to-back NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers, the ex-Chief should have a decent shot at another Super Bowl ring in 2022.
The NFC is the much weaker conference right now and even without Davante Adams, the Packers look like a shoo-in for the playoffs.
During his one season with Matt LaFleur in LA, Sammy Watkins scored eight touchdowns, averaged 15.2 yards per catch and created 10 plays of 20+ yards. Jared Goff’s passer rating when targeting him was 116.0.
99 career games. He’s still only 28.
Definitely worth a look
Of course, Watkins’ first title run came with Kansas City in 2019. That was also the wideout’s top campaign with the Chiefs, with 673 receiving yards and three touchdowns. He added 302 all-purpose yards during the postseason, scoring one touchdown and contributing 13 first downs.
Like KC, the Packers are expected to target the wide receiver position early in the draft. Watkins joins Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Amari Rodgers, Malik Taylor and Juwann Winfree among others in what looks to be an incomplete group.
Since his departure from Chiefs Kingdom, Watkins spent one season (13 appearances) with the Baltimore Ravens in 2021.
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How Many More WRs Does KC Need?
General manager Brett Veach has totally revamped this WR corps heading into 2022 and it’s kind of exciting. Don’t get me wrong, Tyreek Hill will be missed but when the offense stalled in recent years, the problem was fairly obvious.
Defenses were finding a way to take Hill and Travis Kelce out of games and KC’s other weapons weren’t stepping up to the challenge. No question, Veach has sacrificed some quality this offseason but he’s added to the quantity of NFL talent in this receiving core.
It now includes Kelce, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Valdes-Scantling, Mecole Hardman, Justin Watson, Corey Coleman, Josh Gordon, Daurice Fountain, Cornell Powell and more. Plus don’t forget Ronald Jones as an alternative at running back.
Granted, some of these reserves won’t make the roster but the competition should weed out the weak and expect Veach to bring in more talent in the draft. The question is: How many more playmakers will KC add?
Management could double-dip at wide receiver with it being a deep class, or select a pass-catching running back. How about a second pass-catching tight end to learn from Kelce?
This new offense is just getting started and it should be very interesting to see how it all comes together. With Mahomes under center — not to mention the coaching savvy of Andy Reid, Eric Bieniemy and Matt Nagy — don’t count this group out in 2022.