Paul Bretl | 1/6/2024
GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Packers will have to make any potential playoff run without wide receiver Christian Watson.
It was reported by Ian Rapoport that Watson suffered an ACL injury and other potential damage in his left knee during Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Bears. Head coach Matt LaFleur would confirm on Monday afternoon that Watson would be out for the remainder of this season.
Watson had missed the Packers’ previous game against Minnesota while dealing a right knee bruise–an injury that he had suffered against the New Orleans Saints the week prior. During the week leading up to the Chicago game, Watson was a non-participant in practice on Wednesday and Thursday before returning to practice in a limited capacity on Friday.
He was initially listed as questionable for the Week 18 matchup, but Romeo Doubs being added to the injury report on Saturday with an illness and then not being able to play on Sunday did impact the decision to start Watson, said LaFleur after the loss.
“We talked about it all, to be honest with you and I never wanna say one event impacts the other event,” said Matt LaFleur on Monday about the decision to play Watson. “He came to us I think on Friday and just said, ‘Hey, if I go and practice today, can I be up?’ and at the time with just — he was gonna be limited regardless and we were going into this game with just, alright, you got limited amount of snaps when that spot became available, but there was a lot of discussion into it.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t even his knee that was bothering him, so it’s just an unfortunate circumstance that transpired and I never wanna blame one event on the other, but there was a lot of discussion, I’ll leave it at that, in terms of just yeah, we were very aware of just having him on a limited basis and we didn’t even get to that really.”
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In what is a deep wide receiver room, there still aren’t any other pass-catchers on this Packers’ roster who can bring the combination of size and speed to the equation like Watson can.
The obvious loss for the offense is the lack of big play ability that will now be missing with Watson’s ability to stretch the field. On the season, Watson had caught 29 passes for 620 yards and two touchdowns.
This included a four-game stretch from Weeks 11-14, where Watson hauled in 10-of-16 passes for 331 yards at a whopping 33.1 yards per reception. Watson was targeted downfield on 37.5% of the passes thrown his way–the eighth-highest rate among receivers–and his 21.4 yards per catch is the third-most in football this season.
“Christian is a different type of player,” Josh Jacobs said after the Minnesota game. “He’s got attributes and abilities that you can’t coach and you really can’t find anywhere.”
However, Watson’s impact on this Packers’ offense goes beyond the stat sheet as well. For one, he’s a very willing blocker in the run game, but Watson can win at all levels of the field, with his speed and route-running ability helping to create separation on those short to intermediate routes, which then have the potential to be turned into big gains as we saw late versus Chicago on a 60-yard catch and run over the middle.
And with that big play ability that he possesses, there’s a certain gravity that he has that draws defenders to him. This can then open up opportunities for other pass catchers by creating advantageous matchups and more space to operate in.
“It’s a big-time loss just his presence on the field alone, he’s so versatile in his ability to play multiple positions,” said LaFleur on Monday. “You can put him at the X, the F, the Z. You can move him all over the place. Obviously he’s got an element in terms of his size and speed that’s tough replicate. There’s not many built like him around the league.”
But on the flip side, not having Watson’s presence on the field can impact how opposing defenses defend Green Bay. If there isn’t a real fear of being beaten over the top, that then allows defenses to shrink the field and play closer to the line of scrimmage. This makes things more condensed over the middle and on short to intermediate routes and can even impact the running game with more defenders near the line of scrimmage.
We saw an example of this in the recent game against Minnesota, whose secondary did a very good job of taking away any downfield attempts for the Packers, who were without Watson, and overall, that was one element that contributed to the offensive woes we saw from Green Bay in that contest.
“There is a couple plays,” LaFleur said of the Vikings game, “I would say in that game, not to rehash the past but, yeah, where you’re anticipating something where you might have … You just never want to have stagnant routes – routes that are sitting down, not running away from people – because they’re probably going to be gloved if your initial concept does not work.”
There is no replacing Watson in this offense because even with the wide variety of skill sets that the Packers have at receiver, no one else can impact the game–with or without the ball–quite like he does. So the challenge for Matt LaFleur and the offense as a whole will be finding different ways to overcome his absence, specifically, maintaining the downfield ability with the positive trickle-down effect that element can have, and doing so against a very stingy Philadelphia pass defense.
“They’re humming right now,” LaFleur said of the Eagles’ defense. “It’s a very talented defense. You can tell that they’ve got everybody on the same page. It’s much more difficult to get some of those explosive gains, so I would tell ya that it’s gonna be very important for us, for our offense, to be efficient, stay ahead of the sticks. They got superstars on every level of the defense, so we’re gonna have to make sure we’re doing a good job of taking what’s there and churning out and fighting for every inch on the field on Sunday.”