The Green Bay Packers Hope Christian Watson Can Be Their Next Sensational Second-Round Wideout

Greg Jennings. Jordy Nelson.

Randall Cobb. Davante Adams.

The Green Bay Packers have enjoyed remarkable success since 2006 taking wide receivers in the second round. They drafted Jennings in 2006, Nelson in 2008, Cobb in 2011 and Adams in 2014, and all four rank in the top-10 in franchise history in various categories.

Now, they’re hoping to have the same type of good fortune with Christian Watson.

On Friday, Green Bay traded two second round picks — No. 53 and 59 — for pick No. 34 and selected Watson, a raw, small-school wideout from North Dakota State. If Watson’s career comes close to rivaling the other four receivers Green Bay has taken in Round 2 in recent years, the Packers will be downright giddy.

“He’s big and fast and he’s a great kid,” Packers director-football operations Milt Hendrickson said. “I just think he’s going to be a great fit for us.

“He’s been a guy that through the process that you know, just collectively, you look at his size, speed, he’s played at a phenomenal program and he’s used to winning. So there’s a lot of things that went into that, ultimately.”

The 6-foot-4, 208-pound Watson ran a blazing 4.32-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. He also posted a terrific score of 38 on the 50-question Wonderlic test.

Both of those numbers ranked at or near the top of the wide receiver group.

He had terrific numbers in the vertical jump (38-1/2”), the broad jump (11-4) and has big hands (10 1/8”). But his production at North Dakota State doesn’t match his remarkable physical gifts.

Part of that is because Watson remains raw. Part of it was the Bison are a run first offense.

“NDSU just does it differently,” Watson said. “Regardless of whether you’re getting 10 catches a year or 100 catches a year, everybody has a role and you learn early to own your role and define your role.

“Shoot, NDSU just prepares you to win, prepares you to be successful. Regardless of what it was, I was going to work as hard as I possibly can to be the best player I can and the opportunities will come.”

At times, Watson had his share of opportunities at NDSU. At others, he had to patiently wait.

Watson was a bit player as a true freshman in 2018 when the Bison won a national title. In 2019, though, he caught 34 passes for 732 yards — a whopping average 21.5 yards per catch. Watson also had six touchdown receptions and averaged 12.5 yards per punt return.

Watson caught 19 passes for 442 yards (23.3) in 10 games in 2020. He was also a standout kick returner who had two touchdowns and averaged 33.8 yards per return.

Last season, Watson was named second-team Associated Press FCS All-American after catching 43 passes for 801 yards (18.6) and scoring seven TDs. He missed the first three games of the Bison’s postseason, but returned for NDSU’s national title game victory over Montana State.

“Like I said, 100 catches or 10, at the end of the day I’m going to be working just as hard regardless of how many times I touch the ball,” Watson said. “Shoot, NDSU is the place to grow. You learn a lot. I learned a lot throughout my career and I think that definitely, obviously, prepared me for this next leap.”

In addition to Watson’s speed, his ability to track deep balls stood out at NDSU. He has a remarkable catch radius, is an impressive high jumper and has strong hands.

Watson is a creative route runner who creates plenty of separation and can outphysical smaller defenders. He’s also elusive after the catch and difficult for smaller defensive backs to tackle.

But he struggled with drops and must develop a far more refined route tree.

“To his credit and talking to coaches there, he works every day on the JUGS machine,” Hendrickson said of Watson’s drops. “He works all the time, not just on his hands but on his route-running and just becoming a better player.”

While many scouts had their doubts about Watson when the draft process began, he was one of the standouts at the Senior Bowl. That helped alleviate some doubts about Watson’s ability to play against high-level competition.

“I went into the Senior Bowl with the confidence that I was supposed to be there and that I was one of the best of the best and I had every right to be there,” Watson said. “So the confidence was there. For me it was more so just eliminating that question mark of the level of competition.

“I know that NDSU prepared me to play at the highest level possible and I played against a lot of talented players while I was there. So for me it was just another opportunity for me to showcase the player that I was and obviously just continue to eliminate that question mark and compete.”

Watson will have every chance to compete for immediate playing time in Green Bay, where the Packers currently have a riff-raff collection of wideouts. But if Watson can come close to having the impact that former second rounders like Jennings, Nelson, Cobb and Adams had, Packer Nation will be ecstatic.

“I’ve been telling myself one opportunity is all I need regardless of when it is, whether it’s first round or seventh round,” Watson said. “One opportunity is all I need. So I mean, it was a whirlwind of emotions. At the end of the day I just tried to stay calm, cool and collected and just wait for that phone call, wait for that opportunity and it finally came.”