Sammy Watkins appears to be on track to being healthy long before opening day. He posted a video of himself running yesterday, and he looked fine – two months before the start of the season. He’s coming off a broken foot, so no doubt they’ll be careful with him, but he should be starting, healthy and fully dialed in come opening day, so draft boards need to be adjusted accordingly.
When dialed in and healthy, Watkins is arguably the best receiver in the league short of the big three. He plays on a team with an unimaginative lesser passing game, but he’s definitely they’re clear, featured guy – they’ll jam the ball into him even when he’s double-covered and whatnot. And while the Bills will have a bottom-10 passing game out of design, Tyrod Taylor (in my opinion) is probably one of the top-10 deep ball throwers in the league – he’s shown nice accuracy and touch on those long balls.
Watkins remains an injury risk. His first two seasons have been marred by injuries, so even when healthy, you wonder how long it will be before he tweaks an ankle or hamstring or re-injures that foot. But this is a really nice player. When we were originally putting the magazine together, he was my No. 4 wide receiver at one point. Then the foot injury occurred, and I moved him down.
He was injured and underused for a good chunk of last year. Then he basically told the coaching staff to put the offense on his back, and he really took off down the stretch.
In the final six weeks of last season, only three wide receivers had more receiving yards, and only three scored more touchdowns.
| WR: TOUCHDOWNS IN WEEKS 12-17 | |
|---|---|
| Player | TD |
| Doug Baldwin, Sea. | 8 |
| Brandon Marshall, NYJ | 7 |
| Allen Robinson, Jac. | 7 |
| Sammy Watkins, Buff. | 6 |
| A.J. Green, Cin. | 6 |
| Antonio Brown, Pitt. | 6 |
| Calvin Johnson, Det. | 6 |
| Ted Ginn Jr., Car. | 6 |
| Jeremy Maclin, K.C. | 6 |
| Jordan Matthews, Phil. | 6 |
| Odell Beckham Jr., NYG | 5 |
| Eric Decker, NYJ. | 5 |
| Golden Tate, Det. | 5 |
| WR: YARDS IN WEEKS 12-17 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player | TD | |
| Brandon Marshall, NYJ | 702 | |
| Antonio Brown, Pitt. | 693 | |
| Julio Jones, Atl. | 682 | |
| Sammy Watkins, Buff. | 679 | |
| Odell Beckham Jr., NYG. | 587 | |
| Doug Baldwin, Sea. | 530 | |
| Allen Robinson, Jac. | 529 | |
| Jarvis Landry, Mia. | 506 | |
| Emmanuel Sanders, Den. | 496 | |
| Kamar Aiken, Balt. | 488 | |
| Mike Evans, TB. | 481 | |
| DeAndre Hopkins, Hou. | 476 | |
| Jeremy Maclin, KC. | 476 | |
| Markus Wheaton, Pitt. | 476 | |
| A.J. Green, Cin. | 449 | |
—Ian Allan