The Green Bay Packers got unfortunate injury news on Friday afternoon. Head coach Matt LaFleur confirmed that wide receiver Christian Watson is out for Sunday’s Week One matchup against the Chicago Bears. Watson’s fellow receiver and 2022 NFL Draft pick Romeo Doubs is listed as questionable and was a limited participant in practice.
There is optimism, however, that Doubs will be able to play. The loss of Watson, though, is a major one for Green Bay. According to Zach Kruse of PackersWire, Green Bay was 1-4 without Watson/when he played 25% or less of the team’s offensive snaps. In those losses, they averaged just 14.2 points per game.
Former Packers quarterback Kurt Benkert thinks the loss of Watson is a big deal as well.
Kurt Benkert Believes that the Loss of Christian Watson Will Cost the Green Bay Packers
Benkert may not be on a NFL roster now, but he is still very much involved with football. He is working as a NFL insider for Sleeper, and amazingly predicted that the Detroit Lions would defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 21-20 in Week One. Of course, that is exactly what happened.
First prediction of the YEAR & Calling it LIVE. Wow.
Lions 21 – Chiefs 20 pic.twitter.com/ceZ5d9fLyf
— Kurt Benkert (@KurtBenkert) September 8, 2023
Hopefully, Benkert’s powers of foresight do not apply to his prediction of the Packers versus Bears game. While he is, obviously, cheering for Green Bay and his former teammates, he thinks that the loss of Watson is going to be what swings the game in Chicago’s favor:
I have a model that I used from @bet_rithmm that says Christian Watson being out moves the line .4 expected and this model with specific factors I implemented to be important to the game thinks the bears win by > 8 points
🤔 pic.twitter.com/NIJX85xl9R— Kurt Benkert (@KurtBenkert) September 8, 2023
The Bears winning by more than eight points would certainly be the last way the Packers want to start off the Jordan Love Era.
If one wants a bit of hope, though, it can be found in the fact that in Green Bay’s Week Two win against Chicago last season, Watson was a non-factor. In that game, the Packers won 27-10 while Sammy Watkins was the team’s leading receiver (three receptions for 93 yards). Watson had three receptions for nine yards.
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