Will Christian Watson explode in fantasy this year?
Yahoo Fantasy's Matt Harmon and Josh Norris discuss the Green Bay receiver's usage and how it could pay off big for fantasy managers at current ADP. Check out the full conversation on the "Yahoo Fantasy Forecast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Christian Watson, wide receiver 23, definitely ahead of his overall ranking, ahead of some other really interesting names.
Christian Watson's probably a guy I haven't talked about e- enough recently.
Where are you at- Ooh Christian Watson this year, Josh?
I mean, I have him ranked as wide receiver 24, so if he wasn't- There we go selected at this 5.03 spot, if I can remember back to when we did this draft, I think I was hoping to draft Christian Watson as, like, my flex spot here, uh- after, you know, wide receivers earlier.
I am in love with Christian Watson.
I, I think people still perceive him as this high variance, downfield threat, and that's it, and you know that his game transformed last year.
He, he evolved.
Like, you can look at it from his routes.
I think he ran, for the first few years of his career, 7% out routes, and that jumped up to, like, 35% last year.
He was their go-to player on, like, second and eight and third and six.
You know, we, we fantasize about, hey, these big play downfield catch explosive wide receivers, when in reality we want the gimme guys, too.
You know?
Yeah.
And Christian Watson last year became much more of a gimme guy.
And now we get a Packers wide receiver trio instead of a quartet or quintuple or wherever else you go with those numbers, that also him playing the Z, where he's gonna get free releases and some movement pre-snap.
Like, Christian Watson is one of my favorite wide receiver picks according to their value in all of Fantasy Football this season.
Yeah, just to put into context some of that improvement that Josh is talking about here.
2023 season, Christian Watson, 70.6% success rate versus zone coverage.
This last year, 79.1% success rate versus press.
In '23, 60%, just shy of 70% this last year.
So it was the best season of his career as an individual player, and he came off an ACL in the same calendar season.
Right.
And, and your point there about him sticking at Z is so critical to me.
You know, Matthew Golden probably gonna be not a pure sacrificial X, but he'll do some sacrificial things to allow Christian Watson to do all the fun move around stuff.
So, and I, I actually think Matthew Golden is a, a fine later round pick.
I'm really in on all three of these Packers receivers this year.
It's a group that I really wanna target.
Watson in this range.
I probably will just have a couple of guys ranked, you know, a little bit ahead of him, but same tier, totally fine with where Christian Watson goes.
So I thought he was an interesting pick to highlight 'cause we just haven't talked about him enough, on the show.
I took Bucky Irving in the fifth round here, Josh.
