Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Could Get A Steal With Christian Watson In the 2nd Round

Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

After one of the best performances at the NFL Combine, North Dakota State wide receiver Christian Watson has ascended draft boards across the league. Even with Davante Adams‘ potential return, the Green Bay Packers would be wise not to let Watson get past them in the second round. If necessary, they should even be prepared to use a first-round pick on Watson.

The NDSU Bison are undoubtedly an FCS powerhouse that has put many players into the NFL — Carson Wentz, Trey Lance, and Packers offensive lineman Billy Turner, to name a few. However, players at this level don’t typically become household names until they get to an even playing field with the other potential draftees at the NFL Combine. Watson made the most of the opportunity, with physical and athleticism metrics that rank among some of the all-time greats.

That 9.98 score isn’t wholly indicative of on-field success. Still, some of the other players to be ranked that highly include Calvin Johnson (10.00), Chase Claypool (9.98), Andre Johnson (9.97), and Julio Jones (9.97), and the last wide receiver to be selected by Green Bay in the first round, Javon Walker (9.97). Again, it doesn’t mean that Watson is a Hall of Fame-caliber player like many of these others. However, you’ve got to like your odds drafting a guy like this if given the opportunity.

Speed is of the biggest assets that general manager Brian Gutekunst will be looking for. There will need to be cap casualties along the roster somewhere, and it’s as good a bet as any that Marquez Valdes-Scantling has played his final snap with the Packers. MVS was inconsistent yet occasionally brilliant, struggling to stay healthy at times yet showing promise of being more than just a burner. However, he had serious speed, and his absence would create even a bigger void at the position. In all likelihood, there will be a team that gives Valdes-Scantling a hefty raise. But it doesn’t make sense that it would be Green Bay.

So how high could Watson go? Well, that’s the question that general managers face. Wide receiver is a pressing need for the Packers, but so is tight end, edge rusher, defensive tackle, and defensive back. Gutekunst could go many different ways with Green Bay’s No. 28 pick. Of course, it’s most likely that the team will go with the old “best player available” approach. Watson will be that player at some point, but will the Packers have the pick when that time comes?

It’s an incredibly wideout-heavy draft, with as many as seven wide receivers potentially going in the first round. The Ohio State duo of Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, Alabama’s Jameson Williams, Arkansas’ Treylon Burks, USC’s Drake London, and Georgia’s George Pickens could all easily hear their names called in the first round. Watson’s attributes certainly put him in the mix with those players, but will general managers gravitate towards players with that FBS-level experience over Watson’s career at NDSU?

The best-case scenario for the Packers is that there aren’t as many wideouts taken in the first round, a few of those top names trickle into the second, and Watson is waiting for Green Bay at No. 59. CBS Sports has Watson currently ranked as the 16th-best wide receiver in the draft and the 118th-best player overall. But with his performance at the combine, there’s little chance that Watson would be waiting for the Packers at pick 92.

The second round seems like a good fit for Watson, and it’s been a gold mine of success for Green Bay over the last 20 years, especially at wide receiver. Starting with Greg Jennings in 2006, to Jordy Nelson in 2008, Randall Cobb in 2011, and Davante Adams in 2014, the four most talented wideouts of the Aaron Rodgers era have all come from that particular round. Is that coincidence? Maybe, but there has to be a reason that it’s worked out so well the Packers.

If Wilson, Williams, London, and Olave are all off the board by the time Green Bay is on the clock in the first round, Gutekunst should look long and hard at taking Christian Watson. He’s got everything that Aaron Rodgers would be looking for in a wideout — size, speed, and precision route running — and could make an immediate impact, no matter whoever else is on the field with him. Call it a reach if you will, but an impact starter is what you’re looking for in the first round, and it appears that Watson could be just that.

The icing on the cake? His dad, Tim Watson, was a sixth-round pick of the Green Bay Packers back in 1993 when they took him with the 156th pick as a defensive back out of Howard. Tim Watson didn’t ever appear in a game for the Packers, playing in just 13 games over a four-year career with the Kansas City Chiefs, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Eagles. Still, it would be a pretty cool story nonetheless.

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