Aaron Rodgers sounds extremely confident in Sammy Watkins and what he’ll do for the Green Bay Packers this season.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ statements of opinion about his wide receivers always seem to be dissected with great detail. If we take any stock into what he says, we should expect Sammy Watkins to prove it in Green Bay after a rather disappointing career.
Watkins was drafted fourth overall by the Buffalo Bills in 2014 and has failed to live up to expectations of that high draft pick ever since. He’s broken the 1,000-yard receiving mark just once and averages a little over 600 yards per season in his career.
With fewer than five total touchdowns in each of the last four seasons, Watkins has a lot to prove at this stage in his career, even though most fans know not to expect anything close to the caliber of a No. 4 draft pick.
Aaron Rodgers expecting a lot out of Sammy Watkins this year for Packers
Speaking to Madison.com, Aaron Rodgers had this to say about Sammy Watkins heading into the season:
“We’ll work these guys in spots where they feel most comfortable, but the way that Sammy plays, he deserves to be in the first group in. The way Cobby’s played in camp, he deserves to be in the first group in. And the way Allen’s played when he’s healthy, he deserves to be in the first group.”
Being selected to the first group by none other than Rodgers himself is huge. This is a quarterback used to throwing to the likes of Davante Adams, after all. Taking a look at the comment, it’s interesting that Watkins was the only player who didn’t have their play qualified by Rodgers. Cobb (“the way he’s played in camp”) and Allen (“when he’s healthy”) both had their compliments stipulated in some way. Rodgers let it be known that Watkins earned this based on the way he’s normally played.
Watkins has a lot to prove and was signed to a small, unguaranteed deal this year after his single-touchdown, sub-400-yard season with the Chiefs last year. The deal is worth up to $4 million, but according to the article from Madison.com, only the signing bonus ($350,000) was guaranteed.
The Packers are resting a lot of hope in Watkins considering he didn’t play at all during the preseason. Rodgers projects him to be an important piece, we’ll just have to see how that holds up.
Maybe Green Bay has something in mind for how to deploy Watkins that other teams have yet to uncover.
A lot is going on for the Packers offense this year, including a potential mix-up with Amari Rodgers role that makes him look like Deebo Samuel.
