GREEN BAY – Christian Watson hasn’t had an off day since his knee was cut open in January. The road back from a torn ACL is a long grind, full of work. Which made last week’s bye no different.
The Green Bay Packers were taking a week to rest. Watson, their most dynamic receiver, spent those seven days in rehab.
Finally, Watson saw the benefit Oct. 6 when he returned to practice for the first time since tearing his ACL in the 2024 regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears. Watson only did individual reps, not yet participating in 11-on-11 as the Packers methodically acclimate him back to football, but the significant milestone wasn’t lost on him.
“I wouldn’t say that I was nervous, necessarily,” Watson said. “I mean, I’ve been doing this for a long time. It was more just the anxiousness to finally get back out there and get a little bit more of a normal schedule and just play some football.”
Watson said he’s been running and cutting on his surgically repaired right knee for two months. So doing routes on air inside the Don Hutson Center felt similar to what rehab has been like, even if it was his first time catching passes from quarterback Jordan Love.
The focus now will be on Watson returning to football shape. He won’t play before he practices in team periods, and it’s unclear if that phase of his recovery will even happen this week. The Packers need Watson to be full go late in the season, not before Halloween.
Watson said he felt fully healthy in his first practice, but he knows it’s still a long road back to full-time football.
“My trust and confidence in the knee is honestly 100%,” Watson said. “I’ve tried to kind of remove any doubt or negative thoughts about it. Just trust in the work that I’ve put in, and understand the things that I did today is everything I’ve done thousands of times at this point. So that’s my main thing.
“I don’t want to do anything that I haven’t done in a controlled setting. Obviously, as I’m able to get more into those uncontrolled settings, that confidence will be big.”
Watson’s return to practice was a welcome boost for a team exiting its bye week after two disappointing games in Cleveland and Dallas. The Packers know what Watson’s presence on the field means for their offense. A year ago, there was a noticeable lack of field-stretching speed without Watson late in the season, especially in the Packers’ playoff loss at Philadelphia.
The Packers offense remains inconsistent without Watson on the field. A week before dropping 40 points in a tie against the Dallas Cowboys, the offense sputtered in a 13-10 loss at Cleveland. The Packers rank ninth in the NFL in points per game (26), but only 14th in yardage (347.3).
The hope is Watson can eventually provide a lift propelling the Packers to one of the NFL’s best offenses, especially with fellow veteran receiver Jayden Reed not expected to return until late in the season.
“A guy like Christian,” tight end Tucker Kraft said, “extreme threat down the field. Huge catch radius. You’ve seen him make some crazy catches with his very long wingspan. So obviously lifting the top off of coverages like that allows opportunities underneath, and we’re just going to be picking teams apart.”
Watson said he needs to “knock a little bit of rust off” before that can happen. But his return couldn’t have gone much better to this point. The Packers know that’s never a certainty with players returning from a torn ACL. Watson is almost exactly nine months removed from his knee surgery, at the beginning of the usual window for returning. He impressed teammates in his first practice, even if he remains limited.
Receiver Dontayvion Wicks said he kept tracking Watson through drills, curious how his teammate would look in his first reps since the injury. After practice, Wicks said Watson asked how he looked on his routes.
Wicks offered a ringing endorsement.
“He’s still the same,” Wicks said. “He’s still running — he’s been running — but it’s always good to see another playmaker out there and open up more for the offense.”
This article originally appeared on Packers News: Christian Watson returns to Packers practice with full trust in knee, ready to impact offense
Reporting by Ryan Wood, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Packers News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
