Packers will need more than Sammy Watkins to…
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Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said after a season-ending loss to the 49ers that he didn’t want to be part of a rebuilding effort in Green Bay. And now his receiving corps is in shambles.
It’s slightly less wrecked following the addition of Sammy Watkins. But the reported details of the contract — one year, up to $4 million — reveal where Watkins currently is in a career that has never lived up to expectations. The Bills traded up to get him eight years ago, at a time when they could have stayed put and drafted Odell Beckham Jr. or, even better, Aaron Donald.
In eight NFL seasons, Watkins has generated 1,000-plus receiving yards only once, in 2015. In Baltimore last year, he had a career-low 27 catches for a career-low 394 yards and a career-low one touchdown.
That was a different offense, and a different role. It’s unclear what Watkins will do in Green Bay, in large part because it’s unknown what else they will do to beef up the receiver room. Will they add another free agent? Trade for someone? Draft one or more rookies?
It’s all to be determined in the coming days and weeks. Clearly, however, Watkins is the beginning and not the end of Green Bay’s effort to restore its group of pass catchers that has been gutted by the losses of Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Packers will need more than Sammy Watkins to rebuild receiving corps
