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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 Green Bay rebuild effort. And now his reception corps lies in ruins.
It’s a little less devastated after the addition of Sammy Watkins. But the reported details of the contract – one year, up to $4 million – show where Watkins is currently in a career that has never lived up to expectations. The Bills traded to get him eight years ago, at a time when they could have stayed there and moved in Odell Beckham Jr. or, better yet, Aaron Donald.
In eight NFL seasons, Watkins only threw for 1,000 receiving yards 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 be doing in Green Bay, in large part because it’s unknown what else they’ll be doing to beef up the receiver room. Will they add another free agent? Trade for someone? Do you draft one or more rookies?
All this should be decided in the coming days and weeks. However, Watkins is clearly the beginning, not the end, of Green Bay’s effort to restore its squad of pass catchers, which has been burned out by the losses of Davante Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.