The date is January 5th, 2025. The Packers are in the middle of what would become a losing effort against their rival Chicago Bears, in the last week of the 2024 regular season. Despite having already secured a playoff position, and no chance to win the division, the Packers choose to play most of their starters against the Bears. The only real stakes on the line for Green Bay was a slight chance at a better playoff seed, and the chance to emphatically shut the door on a disappointing Chicago season. 

Despite not practicing for almost the entire week beforehand, and only having a “limited” status in that week’s Friday practice, the Packers chose to return Watson from his knee injury in this game. It may have been due to missing a few other receivers in that game, and his return was necessary from a numbers perspective. Perhaps the coaching staff thought it best to give Watson some game reps before a playoff matchup the next week. Whatever the case, Watson would not make it through that game. In the second quarter, while the Packers were trailing 14-3, Watson pulled up in discomfort while running a route, and fell to the ground. A non-contact injury, usually a signal of doom in the sports world. 

It didn’t take long after the game for Watson, and the Packers world, to have their worst fears confirmed. An ACL tear, confirming his absence in whatever playoff run Green Bay would be able to put together, but leaving his entire 2025 season status in limbo. ACL tears are no longer the death blow to an athlete's career that they were 20-30 years ago, but for a player like Watson, whose game is based on pure athleticism, the tear made his return to 100% questionable. 

Of course, Green Bay’s playoff run was short, and Watson’s rehab mostly disappeared from the public eye, although fans did not have to wait long for the first bit of news regarding Watson’s return. On January 12th, Watson’s father shared the first information about a potential  timetable for his return, which painted the return as possible in week 12. A pretty standard return timeline for that injury. 

A few months later, we got a first hint at Watson being ahead of schedule. A simple video that Watson himself posted on instagram, of himself working a treadmill with the caption "Back Soon".

The real fun began in June, when Watson again shared a video on Instagram of his recovery process, this time running what looked like full speed routes, complete with cuts and acceleration.

That, of course, set off a summer of extremely positive news regarding Watson’s recovery. In August, he even went so far as to confirm that he was ahead of schedule on that recovery. If you were paying attention at that point, you might remember rumors flying that while Watson would almost certainly start the season on the PUP list, he may be able to return at the earliest possible window, which would have been week 6 against the Bengals. 

That date turned out to be a little optimistic, and was two weeks later that he finally made his return. Watson was activated back onto the active roster on October 25th, 293 days after tearing his ACL. And since returning to the roster, he’s done nothing but dominate. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that he has reinvented his game as a wide receiver, to the point that he is the clear and obvious WR1 in Green Bay. 

Since returning in week eight, he’s been on an absolute tear. Want to hear a fun fact? Despite missing those first seven games, he’s still on pace to have a career year. He’ll beat all of his statistical bests with 3 more touchdowns, 168 yards, and 16 more receptions. With four games remaining this year, he’s on pace to do exactly that.  

That’s assuming he maintains his current production numbers, and there’s really no reason to think that he won’t. Will opposing defense start to key in on Watson more? Almost certainly, and this Sunday’s matchup in Denver will be a great test, as he’ll likely be seeing a lot of the reigning defensive player of the year, Pat Surtain II. Denver plays one of the highest rates of man coverage in the league, at 40%. Guess who is also one of the best receivers in the league against man coverage this year? That’s right, it’s Watson. 

Hell, forget man coverage. Let’s go on a bit of a statistical journey. Here are the league wide receiving stats since week eight, when Watson made his return. 

Watson’s bid for WR1 of the Green Bay Packers is an open and shut case when you realize that he leads the team in all of these categories. For the sake of argument though, let’s include the entire season, and Tucker Kraft. He’s still third in yards, second in touchdowns, fourth in receptions, first in yards per reception, second in QB rating (Tucker Kraft was a single point away from a perfect QB rating when targeted, by the way), first in average depth of target, and is tied for first in drops, with Matthew Golden. 

Those numbers are only going to go up. I’d be willing to bet good money that he’ll be leading them all by season’s end. 

So, what are the areas that Watson has made the most impact for Green Bay since his return? 

The most obvious use case for Christian Watson is as an explosive down the field weapon. After all, there’s probably not a lot of overthinking to do with a receiver who is 6”4’ and can run 21.6 MPH. The man is just built different. In fact, Bo Melton recently claimed that Watson can run a 4.1 40 time. That’s insane! 

So, how has Watson fared in the “deep” (20+ yard receptions) passing game? Off of only six receptions (most on the team), he’s accrued 201 out of his 452 total yards and 3 of his 5 total touchdowns. While those numbers lead the team in both areas, he’s 23rd and t-6th in the league, respectively. 

That “deep threat” role has been Watson’s MO since joining the team, and these numbers aren’t too far removed from his 2024 totals. That year he had only one touchdown and 288 yards on seven receptions. 

All this combined means that Watson contributes in another, perhaps even more important area than his on field production. Watson’s elite combination of size, speed, and overall athleticism means that when he runs deep, defenses have to be prepared. They’ve got to allocate resources to cover him on every single play, resulting in the well documented “gravity” effect.

However, one of the biggest impacts that Watson has had on this offense since returning, and the difference between this year and last, is that Christian has expanded beyond that role. Since his return, he’s been able to contribute in the intermediate (10-19 yard range) and short (0-9 yard range) passing depths, in ways he hadn’t unlocked in years prior. For example, last year in the short depth area, Watson had only 96 yards and 1 touchdown (58 yards and 1 touchdown this year). Being able to turn the threat of production into actual production has really unlocked this Packers offense. Another impact of Watson’s return has been a greater range of “man coverage beaters” that he unlocks for Matt LaFleur’s playcalling. While the entire offense has fared significantly better against man coverage this season than last (it’s clear they spent a lot of time figuring that out over the offseason), Watson’s presence basically puts so much pause on the idea of running single high against the Packers. You’ve only got to look so far back as this catch and run against the Bears to see why. 

Something I’ve just been so impressed with is Watson’s newfound nuanced route running. Go back to the Thanksgiving game. Besides his 51 yard TD bomb that night, he also had two clutch third down receptions on ten yard out routes. Would those plays have been called for Watson in years past? I also love this intermediate route from Watson against the Bears this past weekend. Watch how he sets up the route by using the release to gain inside leverage. It’s so impressive. 

Now, the tale of the 2025 season is obviously far from over, but Watson’s journey has been so, so impressive throughout it. From his near superhuman return from a devastating injury, to the on field breakout, and every single story of how he contributes to the Green Bay community. 

For the Packers to get where they want to go, Watson’s role is clear: continue the breakout. There’s so much firepower in the NFC right now, particularly out in Los Angeles. Watson’s presence goes a long way to mitigating the loss of Tucker Kraft. And, not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but I think it’s okay to take a second to be excited to see those two to take the field together again next season. Green Bay is well set up to present matchup nightmares for defenses in 2026, considering the dominance that Kraft and Watson present in different areas of the passing attack, and a well rounded supporting cast. Oh, and an MVP candidate at the helm.