Packers Can’t Afford to Lose Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs
The good news is the Green Bay Packers only have two players who might be unavailable for their Week 1 game against the Chicago Bears due to injury. The bad news is that it’s their top two wide receivers in Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.
Doubs has been battling a hamstring injury for a couple of weeks and was listed as a “DNP”–Did Not Practice–for Wednesday’s practice. He missed the Packers’ final preseason game for what head coach Matt LaFleur called a “precautionary” reason.
The good news is he doesn’t have a history of hamstring injuries–something that can’t be said for Watson. Doubs played in 13 games last season, missing four games in November after he sprained his ankle against the Detroit Lions on November 6.
Watson’s injury came out of nowhere, as there was no previous report about him being hurt. He’s also dealing with a hamstring injury, a now recurring issue before he even begins his second professional season.
He missed Week 3 last year due to a hamstring issue and then reaggravated it a couple of games later, missing Weeks 6 and 7 as well.
Although LaFleur didn’t rule them out for the Bears’ game during his press conference on Wednesday, it’s not a good sign that both players didn’t practice in any fashion on Wednesday. We’ll get a better sense of their standing as the week goes on, especially on Friday when Green Bay will release the first game status update on their injury report.
That’s not an ideal start for the Jordan Love era, who could be forced to throw the ball to rookies Malik Heath, Dontayvion Wicks, Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave as well as “veterans” Samori Toure and Josiah Deguara.
LaFleur has helped the Packers overcome games where they were shorthanded at wide receiver in the past, but that was with Aaron Rodgers at the helm. Love is a complete unknown and it’s obviously preferred if he has his full array of weapons at his disposal.
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There was a lot of hype around the playmaking of Watson and Doubs, and losing them for Week 1 would be a huge blow. The Packers have a great chance to start the season hot, racking up wins against lesser competition. That will be difficult to complete without their top two receivers.
The Green Bay Packers could be in big trouble for their Week 1 game against the Chicago Bears without Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.