GREEN BAY, Wis. — Christian Watson’s torn ACL couldn’t have come at a much worse time for him and the Packers.
Head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed the injury on Monday afternoon. It’s one that threatens Watson’s 2025 season as the 2022 second-round pick enters a contract year. The Packers lose their most potent deep threat against a Philadelphia Eagles team that, according to TruMedia, ranked first in the league in explosive pass percentage allowed (10.3).
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Packers’ Christian Watson suffers torn ACL, out for playoffs
That means no team allowed a lower percentage of pass attempts to gain at least 16 yards. Generating explosive plays would’ve been hard enough with Watson, who averaged 21.4 yards per catch on 29 receptions this season. He didn’t have enough catches to qualify for the league leaderboard in yards per catch, but only the Colts’ Alec Pierce averaged more yards per catch among qualifiers. Without Watson, the Packers will have to be efficient in the underneath passing game against coordinator Vic Fangio’s defense known for trying to keep everything in front with two-high safety looks.
“They’re humming right now,” LaFleur said of Philadelphia’s defense. “It’s a very talented defense. You can tell that they’ve got everybody on the same page. It’s much more difficult to get some of those explosive gains, so I would tell you that it’s gonna be very important for us, for our offense, to be efficient, stay ahead of the sticks. They got superstars on every level of the defense, so we’re gonna have to make sure we’re doing a good job of taking what’s there and churning out and fighting for every inch on the field on Sunday.”
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In the Packers’ 27-25 loss to the Vikings two weeks ago without Watson due to the left knee injury suffered the week prior against the Saints, quarterback Jordan Love was 2-of-7 on passes that traveled at least 15 yards in the air, according to Next Gen Stats.
When asked after that game about the lack of downfield shots, LaFleur responded, “I think it’s a by-product of their coverage. Did you see how loose they were? Do you want to just throw it up?” Fangio will already know how to counter a Packers offense without Watson, but he can use Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ approach against Green Bay as a reference to potentially frustrate Love and the passing game without their best downfield option.
“It’s a big-time loss, just his presence on the field alone,” LaFleur said. “He’s so versatile in his ability to play multiple positions. You can put him at the X, the F, the Z. You can move him all over the place. Obviously, he’s got an element in terms of his size and speed that’s tough to replicate. There’s not many built like him around the league. I hurt for him. I obviously hurt for our team, but more for him just because I know how much he’s put into this thing, just like all our guys, and you never want to see that. It’s an unfortunate part of our game, but like I told him, I know he’ll attack it the right way. He’ll handle the adversity. It will just be a bump in the road for him, and I think he’ll come back better. That’s just how he is built. That’s how he’s wired and so I do think there’ll be good. It’s just gonna be down the road.”
In Watson’s place, the Packers will need timely performances from multiple players among wide receivers Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Bo Melton and even Malik Heath and tight end Tucker Kraft. Doubs took over the 2-7 wild-card game last season against the Cowboys with six catches for 151 yards and a touchdown, while Reed had four catches for 138 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles in Week 1 this season. Melton, who might be the fastest player on the team besides Watson and potentially even including him, could be the closest thing Green Bay has to another vertical threat. He’s only caught eight passes this season after breaking out against the Vikings late last season and catching a touchdown in the Divisional Round against the 49ers.
“Bo made a couple plays in that Minnesota game versus bad leverage,” LaFleur said of Melton’s three-catch game two weeks ago. “He’s a guy that we got a lot of confidence in. If given the opportunity, I think he’ll make the play.”
Of course, none of that matters if the guy throwing them the ball isn’t on target and Love admitted after Sunday’s loss to the Bears that he hasn’t been good enough with accuracy lately.
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Watson’s second knee issue this season and third freak injury is a cruel twist for a player who had solved the soft-tissue injury problems littered throughout his first two seasons. After the 2023 season, he saw a specialist in Madison, Wis., and didn’t miss an offseason, preseason or regular-season practice until a Vikings defender fell awkwardly on his leg and injured his ankle in Week 4. Watson only missed one game because of it before a Saints defender fell on his knee in Week 16, causing him to miss the next week’s game against the Vikings.
Watson didn’t practice on Wednesday or Thursday last week and asked the coaches on Friday to be active if he practiced that day, which he did in a limited capacity. Doubs being inactive with an illness led to Watson being active, LaFleur said, while the head coach also said Monday that it wasn’t even Watson’s knee that was bothering him entering Sunday’s game against the Bears (he didn’t specify what was bothering him). It’s also worth noting that Watson’s torn ACL came on his right knee, while the injury sustained against the Saints came on his left.
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“We talked about it all, to be honest with you and I never wanna say one event impacts the other event,” LaFleur said. “He was gonna be limited regardless and we were going into this game with just, alright, you got limited amount of snaps when that spot became available, but there was a lot of discussion into it … it’s just an unfortunate circumstance that transpired and I never wanna blame one event on the other, but there was a lot of discussion, I’ll leave it at that, in terms of just yeah, we were very aware of just having him on a limited basis and we didn’t even get to that really.”
(Photo: Dan Powers / Imagn Images)
