The Green Bay Packers will need to play on without wide receiver Christian Watson for the remainder of Week 4’s game against the Minnesota Vikings.
Watson suffered an ankle injury near the end of the first quarter. Packers quarterback Jordan Love had tried to fit a short pass through tight coverage to him on third-and-7, but Vikings linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill jumped the route and intercepted his pass, pinning Watson’s left foot and twisting his left leg as he went to the turf to secure it.
The Packers’ training staff briefly evaluated Watson in the blue medical tent on their sideline before bringing out the cart and taking the 2022 second-round pick into the locker room. The team initially listed him as questionable to return with an ankle injury but issued an update after halftime to declare him out for the remainder of the game.
“Yikes. That Christian Watson injury looked horrible. Like, very bad,” Alec Lewis, the Athletic’s Vikings beat writer, wrote on X following Watson’s first-quarter injury.
Things got off to a miserable start for the Packers offense in Love’s return to the field. Love showed rust in the first half after missing two consecutive games, throwing two interceptions that helped the Vikings seize a 28-7 lead that they carried into halftime. Rookie kicker Brayden Narveson also missed his first two field goal attempts.
Christian Watson’s Injury Troubles Persist in 2024
Watson’s injury misfortunes have been a recurring theme throughout his young career. He missed three games — and the majority of a fourth — during his 2022 rookie season with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, then sat out almost half of the 2023 season with hamstring injuries after Love took over as the starter, playing a career-low 446 snaps.
Now, Watson is potentially in line to miss more time with a new ankle injury. If he does, it would only exacerbate frustrations for him and the team that once traded two second-round picks (Nos. 53 and 59) to the Vikings to move up for him at No. 34 overall.
Watson flashed his high-end potential as a playmaker for the Packers in 2022 when he caught 15 passes for 313 yards and scored eight total touchdowns in a four-game period. The problem is that — amid availability issues — Watson has struggled to make such an impact consistently with a little more than 1,100 receiving yards in 27 career games.
Through three weeks, Watson had the third-most receiving yards (80) and fourth-most receptions (five) for the Packers and had one of their four total receiving touchdowns.
Packers DT Devonta Wyatt Also Left Game With Limp
Unfortunately for the Packers, Watson was not their only injury against the Vikings.
Packers defensive tackle Devonta Wyatt — a 2022 first-round pick — collapsed to the turf with an apparent injury following a second-and-2 play from the Vikings in the fourth quarter and limped off the field with the team’s trainers. Several minutes later, the Packers announced Wyatt was questionable to return with an ankle injury.
Wyatt had just three tackles with one for a loss against the Vikings, but he had been one of their most effective defensive linemen with three sacks through the first three games. A long-term injury would deprive the Packers defense of another starter after All-Pro cornerback Jaire Alexander missed Sunday’s game with quadriceps and groin injuries.