We have been hearing about the excellent performances of Sammy Watkins during the whole offseason. He was having a rebirth. Nobody really believed or cared about it. Maybe they were too busy focusing on the Tyreek Hill offseason issues to really care about an overpaid Watkins.
Well, we have just seen his rebirth and every fantasy player out there who did not bet on him is regretting this move right now.
He showed his strengths against the Jacksonville Jaguars, piling three touchdowns and racking up 198 yards. Impressive.
Let’s remember that he had a total of three touchdowns all of last season, so that’s a big improvement isn’t it?
While some of his workload came from the injury to recently-extended wideout, Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins showed he is up to the task to replace the Cheetah.
He actually hit 21.3 mph catching the pass that led to the first touchdown; that is quite “Cheetahesque”!
He showed his qualities and humility
The Clemson alum was often criticized last season for being overhyped, overpaid, and not impactful in the Chiefs’ offense coming after leaving the Rams.
In his sophomore year with the Chiefs — maybe a contract year for him — he has to improve his game. Given the new contract given to Hill, the Chiefs will probably not be able to pay the same amount he is getting right now next year. However, during this first away game, he showed his qualities and humility.
After the game, during a press conference, he did not seem to be interested in statistics but in winning, and that should be the spirit of every single player in the league.
He actually said he never expected the football to be thrown his way by Patrick Mahomes, at least not on his first catch.
In fairness, Mahomes never planned to throw it to him, either. Mahomes looked first to wide receiver Tyreek Hill, then he next turned to tight end Travis Kelce, but Kelce was well covered.
Then he saw Watkins.
“I’ve never had a touchdown in this league to break a tackle and run 68 yards. It was great,” Watkins said.
The whole wide receiver team has actually shown more personality, helping each other with good blocks and defending against really angry and vicious Jags players.
“The best thing about this offense is it seems like if we can make one guy miss and the guys get open space, they usually score,” Mahomes said. “So once I saw him make [Jalen Ramsey] miss, and it was just a foot race, I knew he was going to get there.”
On the sideline, players joked with Watkins that it was as if he was back to his Clemson days. In the 40-26 victory over the Jaguars Sunday in Jacksonville, Watkins did an outstanding job and it is well deserved for a player who is hard working.
“He really understands the offense at a different level than he did last year,” Mahomes said. “So whenever he got his number called, he made plays.”
He will now have a chance to show his personality and be a leader among the wide receivers in the absence of Hill. He will be able to show some tricks to rookie Mecole Hardman, too. If he plays the next games the way he played in Jacksonville, there’s nothing to worry about.
