Packer Central

Packers Release Veteran Receiver Sammy Watkins

Before Monday night's game against the Los Angeles Rams, the Green Bay Packers released veteran receiver Sammy Watkins and signed running back Patrick Taylor from the practice squad.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Two weeks after delivering the key block on Christian Watson’s clinching touchdown run, the Green Bay Packers released receiver Sammy Watkins just hours before Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.

The news was reported first by NFL Network.

In a corresponding roster move, a source said the Packers have signed running back Patrick Taylor to the 53-man roster from the practice squad. It will be his third time on the 53 this year. He had one carry for 6 yards vs. Chicago as a practice-squad elevation two weeks ago.

After trading Davante Adams, the Packers threw a Hail Mary to the fourth pick of the 2014 NFL Draft in hopes that he could resurrect his career and help build a bridge from the All-Pro Adams to the kiddie corps of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Samori Toure.

Watkins, though, rarely was healthy – the story of the last several seasons of his career. With one four-game stint on injured reserve due to a hamstring, Watkins caught 13 passes for 206 yards and zero touchdowns in nine games. All three figures are the worst of his career.

The Packers might not have beaten the Bears in Week 2 if not for Watkins’ 55-yard catch. And they might not have beaten the Bears in Week 13 if not for making the big block on Watson’s clinching touchdown run.

“Sammy Watkins had a huge block on that,” coach Matt LaFleur said after that game. “We talked to him right before that, and I know it hasn’t been probably the season that Sammy’s wanted. It started off good and he’s battled through getting injured and then trying to get into the mix a little bit. But that was a significant play for us.”

The impact plays were few and far between, though, for a player who has lost his explosiveness. He dropped two passes at Detroit in Week 9 and didn’t catch a pass the last three games against Tennessee, Philadelphia and Chicago.

“This season’s been weird,” Watkins said a few days after a miserable performance against Detroit in which he had two drops and ran the wrong route on a red-zone incompletion. “It’s football, first of all. Injuries, nicks and bruises, they’re going to happen. They’re going to come. Seems like as soon as I start feeling good, it’s another thing that you have to focus on that slows you down mentally. But you’ve got to stay positive and get through this tough patch.”

After playing 60 snaps in the loss to Detroit, he played 21 vs. Dallas, 22 vs. Tennessee, four vs. Philadelphia and seven vs. Chicago.

With the return of Romeo Doubs following a following a four-game absence due to an injured ankle, the Packers will move forward with veterans Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb and rookies Watson and Doubs for the stretch run.

The Packers needed Watkins to produce and Watkins needed to produce to resurrect his career. Instead, this might be the end of the line for the 29-year-old and a career that began with so much promise.

Drafted by Buffalo, Watkins caught a career-high 65 passes as a rookie and posted a career-high 1,047 yards the following season. However, he missed a total of 27 games from 2016 through 2021. The past three seasons combined, he’s tallied only 1,021 yards and three touchdowns.

“I think I told the coaches, ‘My back is against the wall,” Watkins said during minicamp. “My career hasn’t been what I projected it to be. It’s a great opportunity for me to come here, play hard, catch a ton of balls, compete at the highest level and win games and fight to stay healthy. That’s been the knock on my career – to stay on the field. I think this is the best place to stay healthy, stay on the field and catch a lot of ball.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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