Great Talent, Great Expectations, Great Challenges for Watson

Former FCS star Cooper Kupp has been sensational but he's the real outlier. The Green Bay Packers will need North Dakota State's Christian Watson, their second-round pick, to become a big-time weapon.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Exactly 10,595 days ago, the Green Bay Packers drafted safety Tim Watson in the sixth round of the 1993 NFL Draft.

On Friday night, Watson’s son, North Dakota State receiver Christian Watson, was drafted by the Packers with the 34th overall selection.

“It was surreal,” getting the phone call of a lifetime, Watson said during a Zoom with Packers beat reporters. “I’ve been playing this game since I was 4 years old. This is something that I’ve dreamed of since then. It was surreal. Obviously, to be able to be at such a successful and such a dominant and great organization is amazing, and I’m excited to be on the Packers. Obviously, being able to catch passes from one of the best to ever do it is something I’m definitely excited about. I feel like I’m going to be able to learn and grow a lot through not just him but all the other receivers and everyone else in the organization as well. I definitely couldn’t be more excited to go at it with Aaron Rodgers.”

Watson is a great story. There are the family ties. “I definitely think he does,” have some Packers gear stashed away. “That was a big accomplishment for him. It’s his roots, so he definitely holds on to it.”

There are Watson’s small-school roots. “I always felt since the moment I stepped on NDSU's campus that I was going to be able to achieve everything that I wanted to achieve with the guys around me and in that program.”

There’s his remarkable growth spurt from 5-foot-9 at the end of his junior year of high school in Tampa, Fla., to 6-foot-1 in “a matter of months.”

The stories are great for now, but the Packers will need Watson to beat the odds. From 2010 through 2021, 28 receivers were drafted from non-FBS schools. Only one was drafted earlier than Watson. Brian Quick, from (at the time) FCS-level Appalachian State, was the No. 33 pick of the 2012 draft. He caught 114 passes and scored 10 touchdowns in seven NFL seasons.

Eastern Washington’s Cooper Kupp, a third-round pick in 2017, is on the short list of the NFL’s top receivers. On the other hand, Grambling State’s Chad Williams, also a third-round pick in 2017, had 20 catches in three seasons. Half of the 28 FCS-or-below receivers drafted since 2010 had fewer than 20 career catches.

At 6-foot-4 and with 4.36 speed, to say Watson has a rare skill-set to make that jump would be an understatement. His Relative Athletic Score of 9.96 is all-time great. Then again, Jeff Janis – a seventh-round pick by the Packers in 2014 out of Division II Saginaw Valley State – had a 9.93 RAS. He caught only 17 passes in four seasons with Green Bay.

Janis didn’t pan out, but that was OK. He was part of the same draft class as Davante Adams and joined the prolific duo of Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. That cupboard was stocked. This cupboard is not. The Packers, with Allen Lazard, Cobb and veteran addition Sammy Watkins serving as their not-so-terrific trio, will need Watson to quickly scale the FCS-to-NFL summit if they’re going be legit championship contenders in 2022.

“He’s big and fast. And he’s a great kid. I just think he’s going to be a great fit for us,” Packers director of football operations Milt Hendrickson said. “I go back to everything that encompasses the kid and his ability. You have to know where the kid is at everytime he’s on the field. From that standpoint, that’s a weapon for our offense.”

Watson spent a couple years at North Dakota State with quarterback Trey Lance, the third pick of last year’s draft, as his quarterback. Now, he’ll join four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers is notorious for his demanding nature. But, given the state of the depth chart, Rodgers and Watson are going to have to work through their growing pains.

“I’ll say I’m ready to work,” Watson said when asked about his forthcoming first conversation with the legendary passer. “I’m ready to learn and I’m ready to get after it. I know he’s going to be tough on me and that’s exactly what I want. I want someone who’s going to continue to push me to be the best possible player that I can be and, I know that with him being one of the greatest, that he’s going to get everything out of me. So, shoot, I’m going to tell him I’m ready to work and I’m ready to go.”

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