Hands-on approach to thrive at next level
GREEN BAY – Christian Watson is in a familiar place as Green Bay Packers rookies join the veterans on the practice field for the most important part of the offseason program. He's having to prove himself again. Five months ago, Watson, the Packers' second-round pick, took the field with a slew of Power 5 conference and big-school players he hadn't been exposed to during his years at North Dakota State. Due to playing at a lower level of college football, he was not a priority invite to the Senior Bowl, but he did receive a slot, which meant there was an opportunity to show he could compete with the best.
Just like when he was lightly recruited coming out of high school in Florida and had to prove he belonged at a small-school powerhouse like North Dakota State, he was on the spot in Mobile, Alabama, for the week of practices in front of countless NFL scouts.
“I feel like, that's something that a lot of guys have at NDSU, regardless of who we're playing, we're preparing to be the best, regardless of what level we're playing,” Watson said during the team's rookie minicamp. “So, I took that confidence into the Senior Bowl, and just played every single snap like, ‘I don't care who was in front of me,
I'm going to win every single rep.'
“I know I'm capable of winning. I mean, I'm keeping that same confidence at this level as well. I think I'm here for a reason.”
His performance during Senior Bowl practices is one of the reasons the Packers moved up to the No. 34 pick to select Watson. He was named the wide receiver practice player of the week, an award made more significant by the fact it is voted on by the defensive backs who were there trying to cover him.
Watson caught one pass for 38 yards in the game, but the week of practices is what scouts were looking at most. They needed to know whether he would back down from superior
competition from what he faced at North Dakota State and would he be able to be more than just an athlete who could run fast and straight.
“Even kids from the SEC get nervous because it's best against best, but we noticed it with some small-school kids coming right off the bus (that it was worse),” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said. “What we've done to try to curb that is make sure we talk to multiple people on the (school's) staff and make sure that the kid is wired right for this.
“There's something different about doing it on a bigger stage. I never sensed that was a problem with Christian.”
Coming into a camp where there are plenty of capable cornerbacks, Watson is facing a significant jump in competition again. He might have been able to run past every cornerback he faced in the Missouri Valley Conference, but he'll be facing better athletes with comparable football speed when the Packers' No. 1 defense is on the field.
Organized team activities aren't the same as training camp, so those matchups won't be as tough as they will be during training camp when everyone is in pads and most of the non-contact restrictions in place during the offseason are removed. Watson will have to prove himself all over again when the pads come on.
High on the list of things he needs to show the Packers is that he can catch the ball.
Watson has first-round physical talent (6-4, 208 pounds, 4.36-second 40yard dash) but he fell to the second round because he had a dozen drops during his final two years at NDSU. It's a knock that he tried to erase with his performance at the Senior Bowl, but not everyone was convinced.
“We liked Christian but were a little concerned with the drops and ball skills in the short and intermediate passing game,” said a scout for another NFL team. “He is a legit vertical threat though.”
Nagy said Watson had a good week catching the football but said the drops were a legitimate concern for scouts. He said in the tape he saw, he wouldn't say they were necessarily the result of a lack of concentration, but probably more about his hands and the timing and coordination it takes to be surehanded.
He's going to have to make a lot more contested catches than he did in college, so he must have better ball skills than he has shown.
Nagy said he has seen firsthand receivers who have improved their hands. When he was a scout for the New England Patriots, he said receiver David Givens could not catch the ball consistently and was considered mostly a special teams player.
But he said Givens “lived on the Jugs machine” and gradually improved his hands “until he became a really good receiver.”
“He proved to me you can improve your hands if you're willing to work at it,” he added. “The one thing you can't teach is 6-4, 208 and 4.38. Christian's got a ton of upside.”
At the Senior Bowl, Watson showed the ability to get off the line of scrimmage with lateral movement, Nagy said, which helped convince scouts that he was not just a straight-line speed guy. His knack for setting up shorter routes was evident in Packers rookie camp and will be something the coaches will be looking at closely in training camp when he faces press coverage.
When comparing Watson to Marquez Valdes-Scantling, the former Packer who was mostly a straight-line runner, the scout said, “He's a much better player than MVS.”
One of the things the Packers won't have to worry about is Watson approaching his opportunity tentatively. The way he competed against bigschool defensive backs at the Senior Bowl showed he isn't afraid of competition and goes into show-me situations full bore.
“I tell myself all the time, I needed one opportunity, had one opportunity going into college,” Watson said. “And obviously, it wasn't up to me, but I have this opportunity now. All I needed was the opportunity and now that I've got it, I'm not worried about whatever anybody else is doing or any other team or person on different teams do.
“I'm just worried about where I'm at right now.”
Heading into a year when the Packers are looking for someone to boost their receiving game, they'll need him to maintain that focus and show the next level of competition isn't too big for him.