Kansas City Chiefs WR Sammy Watkins took a pay cut to stay with the team this offseason. Had he not reworked his contract, he might have been among the salary cap casualties in Kansas City.
The love was flowing for Watkins on Sunday during the Chiefs’ media availability. Both Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes spoke about how important he is to the team and their success on the field.
“I’m a big Sammy Watkins fan,” Reid said. “I think he’s a heck of a football player and really helps make this thing go offensively. I don’t worry about all that, I’d hope that he’d want the ball more. That’s what great players want. That doesn’t bother me that he said that. I’m glad he’s back here and he’ll have opportunities for sure.”
Reid isn’t concerned that Watkins expressed the desire to get the ball more this offseason. He knows that’s a quality that great players have and he knows that Watkins is bought into the way they do things in Kansas City. The No. 1 priority is winning football games and everything else is gravy.
For Mahomes, he recognizes the subtlety to Watkins’ game that helps the rest of the offense work. It isn’t just when he’s catching the ball, scoring and making plays. It’s the other things that he does to free up his teammates to make plays.
“I mean it was extremely important,” Mahomes said. “To have someone of his caliber who really goes out there and plays well every single week, like you said he does so many things well. Obviously, he catches the ball well, he scores for us, makes a lot of plays after contact, but also I mean just a part of blocking and running the routes hard and getting other guys open, I mean in this offense it takes every single person and I think you saw that in the playoffs when his number got called, he made big plays happen, and so it’s a guy that we love having back and that’s going to continue to help our offense progress and get better.”
Beyond his impact on the field, Mahomes and Watkins have bonded off the field along with the rest of the receivers. They might not get to go out to eat this season due to COVID-19, but the fact that they previously bonded that way, is part of what makes this team so close-knit.
“I mean he’s been a great teammate,” Mahomes said. “He’s been someone that since day one who’s joined in that receiver room. I mean that’s the most fun room you could probably be in in this locker room, and he’s been a leader in that room and someone who’s gotten along with everybody. We as the quarterbacks, receivers, running backs and tight ends and guys we’ll usually, probably not this year, would go usually out to eat with the families, the girlfriends and we kind of all just hang out, eat dinner and sometimes go to Chicken N Pickle, play pickleball, whatever it is and so we all have great relationships in that room and in the whole offensive and defensive rooms and that’s what makes this team so special.”
The two masterminds behind the Chiefs’ offense are elated to have Watkins back for another year. Perhaps this is a sign that Watkins is due for a big season in Kansas City? It could also simply be that Watkins and his role within the Chiefs’ offense are more than meets the eye.
