Kansas City Chiefs: Biggest risk of the offseason

The Kansas City Chiefs signed wide receiver Sammy Watkins to a lucrative deal this offseason worth $48 million. Will he be worth it?

Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach made two lucrative deals in free agency this offseason including the signings of wide receiver Sammy Watkins and linebacker Anthony Hitchens. Watkins will provide second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes with another viable deep threat in 2018. What would constitute Watkins being worth his contract?

First of all, $48 million over three years with $30 million in guarantees is a hefty contract making him the seventh among wideouts in guaranteed money.

There has been a significant amount of speculation around Watkins not living up to his initial hype coming into the NFL and being drafted 4th overall by the Buffalo Bills. Between battling a foot injury and only reaching 1,000-yards once in his four seasons, that would make for an argument.

If that is what you would like to base your argument on then, you are looking at box score analysis instead of watching Watkins on film. During his time in Buffalo, Watkins played in a conservative offense with next to nothing when it came to weapons outside of Watkins.

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Sure, the Bills have running back LeSean McCoy, but that’s it. Even with that being said, Watkins was short of 1,000-yards his rookie season by 18 yards. The final season with the Bills was the year he only played eight games due to his foot injury.

Then you have the last season where he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams in August. Trying to learn a new system and playbook, Watkins never had time to get integrated into the Rams offense fully. Los Angeles never even moved him around the offense. Instead, they lined him up on the left side all season.

The film speaks for itself as Watkins was an explosive player last season that failed to get enough opportunity to prove his full potential in the Rams offense. Quarterback Jared Goff consistently missed Watkins come open downfield on a weekly basis.

His lack of time to learn the new offense and lack of opportunities were an indicator of his stats last season. Watkins still showed his ability to consistently beat coverage and get open whether it was downfield or on shallow routes.

Coming to Kansas City, Veach saw the untapped potential and made an offer that Watkins couldn’t refuse. While many sites want to call him a potential bust, I think that the teams have yet to get all they can get out of him.

Even Bleacher Report listed him as the “Riskiest move of the offseason”. Watkins has yet to be fully utilized and the Chiefs plan to do just that. Moving him around in the offense at OTAs and minicamp, Watkins is already ahead of last season.

Then begs the question of what would make his contract worth the money? Instead of just looking at his individual production, let’s look at what he brings to the overall offense. While Watkins is a great receiver who can be a significant threat anywhere on the field, that also brings more attention to himself.

This forces defenses to respect Watkins and plan accordingly taking away the ability to focus on tight end Travis Kelce, wide receiver Tyreek Hill, or running back Kareem Hunt as extensively.

Given the number of elite weapons on the Chiefs offense, it will be impossible to gameplan around all of them. Defenses will have to pick and choose their poison each week on who they want to eliminate. Adding another weapon like Watkins makes it more difficult for teams to do this. He also provides insurance for the team in case one of their playmakers gets hurt.

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If you ask me, Watkins is worth the money. With Mahomes on a rookie deal, it allows the Chiefs to spend that money elsewhere to surround him with talent. I believe this offense will be significantly different and even better in 2018. How much of that is because of Watkins we will have to wait and see, but it’s beyond the box score analysis.