Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season hasn’t even started. Yet, fantasy football managers are already having to navigate the always precarious injury landscape. Teams playing Sunday held their first official weekly practice today.
Sophomore WR1 Christian Watson was not on the field for the Green Bay Packers. What do we know about Watson’s absence, and how should fantasy managers prepare?
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Latest News Surrounding Christian Watson
When the Packers players came out of the locker room for practice on Wednesday, Watson was noticeably absent. As The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman observed, “Watson and Romeo Doubs are not practicing today. Both will be on the injury report.”
Update: According to Tom Pelissero, it is a hamstring injury for Watson, as well as Doubs. Given that we hadn’t heard anything about this until today, it sounds like it was relatively recent. It is too early to make any definitive statements, but my guess based on the information we have is that Watson will not play this week.
Thursday Update: According to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky, Watson was “nowhere to be seen” at Thursday’s practice. Later in the season, players can go DNP-DNP-LP and end up playing. Ahead of Week 1, that is extremely unlikely. Fantasy managers should fully expect Watson to sit this week. Given that Doubs returned to practice, he is shaping up to be a nice Week 1 option. Jayden Reed is also in play in deeper leagues as the clear WR2.
To clarify, just because a player is on the injury report does not necessarily mean he is injured. A player could be absent for a multitude of reasons. However, ahead of Week 1, this is not a situation where anyone is getting a veteran rest day, especially not a second-year player. In all likelihood, Watson is dealing with an injury.
For Watson’s teammate, Doubs, we’ve known about his hamstring strain for a couple of weeks now. With Watson, this is completely out of the blue and the first anyone is hearing of a potential injury. Currently, we have no information on what is going on.
Will Watson Play This Week?
Once we get a few weeks into the season, Wednesday practice reports become largely meaningless. So many players get the day off because of the grind that is the 18-week NFL season.
Ahead of Week 1, everyone should be practicing on Wednesday. Watson’s absence matters. If it is indeed injury-related, it does not bode well for his status this Sunday. Until we have specifics on what the issue actually is, it is impossible to speculate.
What Does This Mean for Watson’s Fantasy Ranking?
There is no sense in moving Watson in our PFN Consensus Rankings. He will either remain where he is, or he won’t play, in which case, he will be removed.
Fantasy managers have no reason to panic at this point. We simply do not know enough. However, if you are looking to get a jump on preparing for Watson’s absence, the first course of action would be to look to your bench.
Every team is playing in Week 1. Odds are, your top bench player is better than anything you will find on the waiver wire.
If you do need to look to the waiver wire, though, two rookies could be set up nicely for strong debuts.
The first is the Packers’ own Jayden Reed. If both Watson and Doubs are out, Reed would be forced into the WR1 role. It’s obviously less than ideal to start a rookie WR in his first career start, but who else is Jordan Love going to throw to?
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Another option that’s out there in more than 60% of Yahoo leagues is Marvin Mims Jr. With Jerry Jeudy out with a hamstring strain, Mims is poised to start opposite Courtland Sutton in two-receiver sets. He is just as speculative of a start as Reed, though.
If Watson does end up missing this Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears, replacing him with a stable veteran you have on your bench is likely the most prudent move.
We will update this article with specifics once the Packers release their injury report this afternoon.