Christian Watson profile: Why the Green Bay Packers drafted the WR in the 2022 NFL Draft
The Green Bay Packers picked Christian Watson with the 34th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
North Dakota State was lucky to discover Christian Watson. Coming out of high school with no offers, the program stumbled onto him thanks to videos recorded by an assistant coach in the rain.
As a freshman in 2018, he was limited to just nine catches. Then, in his two full seasons with the Bison, he hauled in 77 receptions for 1532 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 28 carries for 276 more yards and two touchdowns, making it to the first-team All-Missouri Valley Football Conference twice.
Christian Watson's strengths
The height-weight-speed prospect from the FCS showed more refinement than people would have expected against top-tier competition throughout the Senior Bowl, where he was named the National Team’s wide receiver of the week.
He’s had a meteoric rise, which continued with a Combine showcase that made me call him a certified freak (4.36 in the 40, 38.5-inch vert, and a combine-best 11’4” broad jump).
He isn’t just FCS fast; he can run away from every Power-Five defensive back. Watson consistently comes off the ball with urgency, accelerates to top speed within a few of those long strides, and has the ball aired out to him on the go and post routes routinely.
You watch those corners across from him get on their heels and keep backing up, resulting in easy separation on deep curls and out-routes. Watson has an uncommon twitch for such a big body, where he can whip off one foot in an eye-opening fashion.
Down in Mobile, he had a couple of V-release slants against inside shades that many sub-six foot receivers would be jealous of. He doesn’t tilt to give away his routes and can sort of pivot off the ball on his feet, rather than having to chop his steps, routinely presenting himself as a target over the middle of the field.
Yet, he also carries his speed well through more fluid breaks. Watson can use a little chicken wing to create some separation at the top of his routes – particularly breaking inside against contact – and he has the strength to fight through contact to gain the leverage needed for a ball to fit into him.
Watson has supreme confidence in his hands, constantly extending away from his body when the ball arrives. He can go up and snatch balls out of the air in jump-ball and goal-line situations.
He displays excellent focus when hauling in off-target throws. Watson’s speed wasn’t only a significant asset on vertical routes. Still, the Bison coaches also put the ball in his hands on jet sweeps and reverse, where you see him slice inside of blocks in space and move at a different speed to the rest of the competition, as multiple opponents desperately dive at his legs and try to trip him up.
He can weave through defenses, start and stop to let blockers get set up, hurdle over tacklers, and produce big plays if you give him room to work. Overall, 57 of 180 touches went for 20+ yards (just under a third). He averaged an absurd 4.33 yards per route run last season.
When you play for the Bison on offense, you better be ready to block if you want to see the ball, and Watson took pride in that area of his game. He brings some thump at contact and stays engaged with opponents deep into plays, seeing fellow receivers come around the edge on reverses while still driving his man.
As the X in that offense, he was asked to crack back or shoot inside on safeties, and you see him be the one to spring big runs lose at times. He had a remarkable play when he didn’t touch the ball against Albany, but instead, he shielded the safety initially on an inside zone run. Then, as the running back bounced wide, Watson cut off the angle for the most dangerous pursuit defender. Finally, he accelerated past his teammate to land a crushing blow on the last defender, who would have otherwise pushed the back out of bounds and prevented the touchdown.
Christian Watson's weaknesses
While it certainly built up his blocking, Watson did play in a power-run offense at NDSU, where his route tree was reasonably limited, and a lot of his production came off play-action shots or designed touches.
He almost exclusively worked in the boundary, going straight or making 90-degree breaks, sprinkling a few curls. As great as he looked during Senior Bowl practices, watching his tape against FCS competition, seeing how much more physically gifted he was and how little he was challenged at the line of scrimmage, this is still a bit of a projection.
One must have seen the ball slip through Watson’s hands a couple of times down the middle of the field because he didn’t have them close enough together, resulting in five drops last year.
Conclusion on Christian Watson
There is not a college prospect who has helped himself more or moved further up on the draft board than this beast of a wide receiver. Watson didn’t put up the kind of mind-boggling numbers from other FCS prospects who usually get a lot of attention, but that was more due to the lack of pure volume, considering the offense he was in.
He was tremendously effective when given a chance. There will be room to grow as a more varied route-runner, and he won’t be able to win as much with pure athletic tools against pro players. Still, he is a rare talent and has the potential to become a player who you can put on the backside of three-by-one sets and trust that he will consistently beat his man.
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