6′ 1″ / 211 lbs

Career 16 Game Average: 59 Rec / 939 Yards / 7.7 TD/ (15.9 yds/rec)

Career high PFF Grade: 87.5 in 2015 (same as Allen Robinson oddly enough)

Best Season by football outsiders DYAR rating: 9th best receiver in 2015 (in between Calvin Johnson and OBJ) DYAR can be explained here

Playerprofiler.com Ratings

Explanations on all these stats can be found here

Next up is Sammy Watkins. He was highly rated coming out of Clemson where he was the #1 on a WR corps that also had DeAndre Hopkins and Martavis Bryant. His rookie year he was the 4th best rookie in total yards and was ranked 5th in y/r among rookies with 26+ receptions (65 rec / 982 yds / 6 TD @ 15.11 y/r). Don’t worry about him not being the best rookie, this was an absurd WR class.

Watkins followed this up with a monstrous 2015 where he was a top receiver by both traditional and advanced stats like PFF and football outsiders (60 rec / 1047 yds / 9 @ 17.5 y/r in only 13 games).

Two years later: Watkins has dealt with a foot injury that limited him to 8 games in 2016. In 2017 he was traded to the Rams in the offseason. Despite being apart of a killer offense, he didn’t receive the targets he was used to in Buffalo (70 compared to his usual ~120 per 16 games with the Bills)

Now, the 24 year old is an unrestricted free agent. There doesn’t seem to be much buzz around him since he has had consecutive unremarkable seasons but he is still young and very talented. Im going to start out by looking at him at his best (2015) and then we will see where his is now.

2015: The Good

Deep Threat

Watkins was expected to be an elite deep threat coming out of school and thats what the Bills got with him. He has a great stutter step that allow him to get a separation against press coverage at the line of scrimmage and the speed to blow the top off the defense from there.

As soon as Watkins beats him off the line, he knows he’s taking it to the house

Fake outside, burn him inside. I think this is his favorite move.

Outside-inside again. TD.

Same move. Great job tracking this one.

One more for good luck.

Route Running

Watkins does not have an extended route tree but he has a few moves that consistently beat press coverage. He can use both agility and physicality to beat his man for easy yards.

Comebacks/Hitches

These are some of my favorite plays to watch from Watkins. Corners are so scared of him burning them deep that they will commit to a go route and Watkins will stop on a dime leaving the corner in the dust.

Look how far these guys are turned around. These are the types of plays that come with being an elite deep threat.

The corner actually has good coverage but cant stay with Sammy when he makes a stop like this

The corner isnt in press coverage but Watkins breaks Revis’ ankles so bad I had to include it in here.

Slants/Quick Outs

These are two slants where he uses his quick feet to get open. The top starts with a stutter step followed by 3 steps and the slant. The bottom he stutters, fakes out and cuts inside for the slant.

Here he gets physical with Brent Grimes and then peels off for 10 yards.

Watkins uses a few great moves at the line of scrimmage to get open on a few quick outs.

2015: The Bad

The major weakness in Watkins’ game is his inconsistent hands. I wont call them bad because he has the ability to make some great catches in tight windows… (See Below)

..But when you go through his film there are times where he drops some balls that should be caught every time.

2017: Is Watkins the same guy?

Now Watkins is a free agent and it has come at a poor time for him. He’s coming off a very quiet year by his standards. While he was still efficient (15.2 Yards/Reception) he didn’t receive the volume that he did in Buffalo.

Whats the reason for this drop off? One theory is that his foot injury slowed him down. Another explanation is that an outside receiver like Watkins would never thrive in this Rams offense. They spread it around so much and their leading receivers were Cooper Kupp (Slot guy, 869 yards) and Todd Gurley (Running Back, 788 yards). The last theory is that Watkins and Goff just never connected. The trade from Buffalo happened on August 11 meaning the two never got a chance to practice together in training camp.

So Watkins didn’t make the same same amount of plays this year, but does he still have the ability? Lets take a look

Route Running

Slants, Outs, Comebacks… Watkins still has them. He can use his feet or he can get physical at the line to get open on his own.

Deep Threat

The Rams did not have Watkins run deep routes at the rate he was running them in Buffalo. However, he still showed the ability to beat press coverage and create some space on deep routes.

Conclusion

Its been a tough 3 years for Watkins. He was great in 2015, injured in 2016, and in a weird situation in 2017. While some are ready to write him off as a bad player, I believe that GM’s know what he’s capable of. A foot injury isn’t something to take lightly, but he did just play in 15 games this year (sat out the 16th along with other starters). At just 24 years old he has to potential to be a star receiver for years to come, if a team is willing to give him the targets (I can think of a few that would be).

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