The Green Bay Packers‘ passing game thrived against the Chiefs on Sunday night, and with a favorable schedule over the final month of the fantasy football season, we need to level set when it comes to reasonable expectations for their duo of Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs following the latest Christian Watson injury.
What did we learn from Week 13, and what can we expect from this upward-trending aerial attack moving forward?
Latest Injury Update on Christian Watson
Watson was having a phenomenal performance in Week 13 against the Kansas City Chiefs before he exited late in the fourth quarter with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. The explosive WR pulled up on his own on an end-around play and immediately grabbed his hamstring.
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We’ll continue to update this article with the latest news and information regarding Watson and how long he’s expected to be sidelined, so make sure to check back in frequently.
Jayden Reed’s Rest-of-Season Outlook
The rookie out of Michigan State has been coming on strong of late, and while his Week 13 stat line doesn’t jump off the screen at you (four catches on five targets for 16 yards), he remains my top-ranked Packers WR for the remainder of the season.
He has caught at least four balls in four straight games as he establishes a nice floor (he only had two games with 4+ catches this season prior to this run). He owns the lowest aDOT of this trio, and while that results in a slightly lower per-catch ceiling, it helps elevate his floor and put him on the weekly Flex radar.
In addition to his increased usage in the passing game is the occasional handoff/gadget play that the team has called in an effort to get him in space. Those opportunities have resulted in some fantasy production, but for me, it’s even more appealing than the raw numbers suggest.
Those plays require practice time and don’t happen by accident. They happen when the coaching staff has an increased level of confidence in their player — a player who had fewer rushing yards through the end of October than you or I. Reed is my favorite Packer WR to leverage a favorable remaining schedule into a strong finish (with or without Watson in the mix):
- Week 14 at NYG: Fifth-most yards per play allowed
- Week 15 vs. TB: Fourth-most yards per pass allowed
- Week 16 at CAR: Second-worst red-zone defense
- Week 17 at MIN: Second-highest opponent completion percentage
Romeo Doubs’ Rest-of-Season Outlook
We saw Doubs bail out Love a few times in tough spots against the Chiefs, but we haven’t seen him earn consistent opportunities with Watson on the field.
Yes, he scored in four of five games over a month stretch bridging October and November, but Week 13 was his first game since November with even 55 receiving yards, and he got there in a less than sustainable way (33-yard catches on pseudo-Hail Mary 4th-and-1 plays aren’t exactly something I’m banking on).
That’s not to say that we can’t have productive Doubs days like what we saw against the Chiefs; those performances are just going to be more spotty than his teammates if Watson is healthy. In that event, he would be on the outside looking in at my top 45 receivers for the final month, ranked in the same range as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Joshua Palmer, and Josh Downs.
If this Watson hamstring injury results in missed time, Doubs’ outlook improves (33 targets in the four games before Watson was back in form to open this season), and he would slide in just behind Gabe Davis in these rest-of-season rankings.
Updated Rest-of-Season WR Rankings
32. Zay Flowers | BAL
33. DeAndre Hopkins | TEN
34. Jayden Reed | GB
35. Noah Brown | HOU
36. Marquise Brown | ARI
37. Christian Watson | GB*
38. Brandin Cooks | DAL
39. Gabe Davis | BUF
40. George Pickens | PIT
41. Tyler Lockett | SEA
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