Professor Rodgers Plans Series of Tests for Watson

For Aaron Rodgers, those tests are far deeper than throwing passes to the rookie receivers to see if they can make the catch.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – With Christian Watson having missed the first couple weeks of Green Bay Packers training camp, Aaron Rodgers knows that time is of the essence to get the talented rookie receiver up to speed.

Following offseason knee surgery, Watson was a full participant at practice for the first time on Sunday and again on Monday. With about 10 practices remaining until the Packers face the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1, every day on the practice field will be a test from Professor Rodgers. Those pass/fail tests will go a long way toward determining early-season playing time.

Watson passed one of those tests on Sunday.

“I gave him an adjustment he’s never done before and it was quick,” Rodgers said in explaining the process on Monday. “It was 5 seconds. ‘Hey, do this.’ Boom, boom, boom. ‘And then do that.’ And he came out and he did exactly what I said. It’s little things like that I’m going to test him on. We had another one where I gave him a signal that maybe he’s gone over one time, maybe it was a month ago, maybe it was in the OTAs, and he didn’t have it, didn’t come up with the adjustment.”

While Rodgers has grown tired of some of the mistakes, he knows it’s going to be part of the process with Watson and fellow rookie Romeo Doubs, who are going to be thrust into key roles as the offense evolves to life without Davante Adams.

The key for Rodgers, first and foremost, is for the young receivers master the “simple stuff” that should have been learned during the offseason program’s playbook installs. That’s the routes and alignments in the on-paper playbook.

“It’s those little things that we can’t make mistakes on,” Rodgers said.

From there, don’t be repeat offenders on some of the graduate-level offense.

“What I really want to see is the mistakes, full speed. Because I know if you make a mistake now in training camp, it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to make a repeat mistake when the same situation comes up in a regular season game,” Rodgers said.

On Sunday, Watson said he needed to get better mentally and physically after a long layoff. With an elite combination of size and speed, Watson has the full toolbox. Now, it’s maximizing those physical gifts. With Jordan Love at quarterback, Watson made an outstanding catch against Rico Gafford during a two-minute drill that positioned the offense for the winning field goal.

“I personally feel like it’s really good,” Watson said of his relationship with Rodgers. “I feel like I can lean on him and rely on him for a lot. Obviously, being a rook, I have a lot to learn. Even just knowing the offense and knowing the installs, there’s a lot more outside of that. I’ve been able to lean on him and ask him questions and he’s been open, talking and getting the nuances down. Obviously, getting the live reps with help.”

The learning on the fly will be important for both rookies, but especially so for Watson, who lacks the volume of practice and game reps given to Doubs.

“So, I’m going to test him every single day and give him adjustments and things that they might not have talked about, maybe they’ve talked about, see what the recall is and see how well they can adjust on the fly,” Rodgers said. “And when they make a mistake, coach them up on what I want.

“It’s not that that I’m so worried about. It’s the outside-of-the-paper offense that there’s going to be mistakes now. There’s going to be adjustments, there’s going to be checks that they maybe haven’t seen before or haven’t gone over more than once. Those mistakes I’d like to see happen now. It’s the simple stuff – the alignments, the route stems, the adjustments – that are a part of the Day 1 base offense that we can’t have. But I think feel like there has been some improvement in the last week from all those guys.”

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It took until the 18th practice of #Packers training camp for Christian Watson to catch his first pass in a live practice. Whether or not he plays at the Chiefs, he said he'll be ready to be a factor in Week 1.https://t.co/17gGqzUjnM

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 22, 2022