Kansas City Chiefs WR Sammy Watkins restructured his contract this offseason to stick with the team that helped make him a Super Bowl champion. In two seasons with the Chiefs, across 22 games started, Watkins has recorded 92 catches for 1,162 yards and six touchdowns. He added 464 yards and one touchdown on 24 catches in the postseason in Kansas City.
Watkins’ week-to-week success and injury history has perplexed fantasy football players for the past two years. He already sat out of training camp for a few days with a groin injury. It seems like Watkin is a player who has hot streaks and cold streaks, with a lot of standout moments in the postseason. That has turned Watkins into one of the most criminally underrated players in fantasy football. Just yesterday I was able to draft him with the 169th pick in round 15 of a PPR league.
Here’s what our friends at The Huddle had to say about Watkins.
“Watkins remains the slot receiver and just renegotiated his contract low enough to stay. Despite two years with Mahomes, Watkins only averages around 600 yards per year and scored three times in each. He’s capable of the big game on occasion, but he just as likely to turn in just a few fantasy points in any week.”
The Huddle’s projections for Watkins this season are a measly 510 yards and three touchdowns on 40 receptions. In his last three games, during the 2019-20 playoffs, Watkins had performances of 76 yards, 114 yards and 98 yards. He added a touchdown in that middle game too. That’s over half of Watkins’ expected production for the entire 2020 season by The Huddle’s estimation.
Additionally, many are crowning second-year WR Mecole Hardman the handcuff to Chiefs’ top wideout Tyreek Hill. Hardman had a productive year on limited opportunities in his rookie season and he’s been working hard all offseason. He should be due for a big year, but is he really the handcuff to Hill? When Hill was out with an injury in 2019, Watkins played over 90% of snaps on offense in Kansas City in each of the first four games before suffering an injury himself in Week 5. Hardman didn’t have a snap share higher than 78% all season long.
Both Watkins and Hardman will get their share of the targets in Kansas City, but if Watkins continues the tear he was on in the 2019-20 postseason, it’ll be hard to keep him off the field. At his current value, he could be a late-round steal in your fantasy leagues.
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