Christian Watson — Week 1: Two Touchdowns, One From Eighty-One
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Watson caught six of eight targets for a hundred forty-seven yards and two touchdowns — eighty-one yards deep middle on second and ten in the first quarter and two yards on second and two with eighteen seconds left in the half — and the eighth target, with four twenty-one left, was intercepted. Five of the six catches came before halftime, in a 39–22 loss to the Vikings.
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Green Bay three, Minnesota nothing, seven 54 left in the first quarter, second and 10 at the Green Bay 19. Jordan Love threw deep middle and Christian Watson took it 81 yards for a touchdown. The play was worth +7.1 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 14 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain by both measures on any Packers play all afternoon. It came one snap after a short throw to Jonnu Smith had been ruled complete, challenged and reversed.
The line: eight targets, six catches, a hundred 47 yards, two touchdowns, five first downs, +6.9 expected points on the targets. The second touchdown was the last snap of the two-minute drive: second and two at the Minnesota two, 18 seconds left in the half, up 12 to 10, short right. He had put the ball there himself two plays earlier, deep left for 32 yards to the seven on first and 10 from the Minnesota 39, pass interference on Byron Murphy declined. The two third-down targets split: 10 yards short left on third and seven at the Minnesota 37 with 32 seconds left in the first, a first down, and six yards on third and nine at the 26 to open the second quarter, three short, ahead of a field goal. The eighth target was the one that went wrong: second and three at the Green Bay 32, four 21 left in the fourth, down 32 to 22, short middle, intercepted by James Pierre and returned 28 yards to the 14, −6.6 expected points. Six targets before halftime for five catches and a hundred 31 yards; two after for one catch and 16.
Eight targets was second on the team to Matthew Golden's 12, ahead of seven to Jayden Reed and six to Tucker Kraft, and the hundred 47 yards led the Packers by 52 over Golden. Love threw 42 times on 46 pass plays, and 12 of the throws were deep; Watson's 81 32 were two of the six deep completions.
Back in June the preview made no call on Watson: the 20-ninth receiver at pick 66, a top-15 per-game rate built on five and a half targets a game and a 27-percent touchdown share, both of which it said come down, with the target volume — past six or seven a game — as the September watch. Sunday was eight targets and two touchdowns on six catches, the volume the preview asked for and the touchdown share it said would not hold, in the same afternoon. One game is one game, and this one was the boom half of a boom-bust profile, played the way the preview described the ceiling. Green Bay is at the Jets on Sunday the twentieth. The number to watch is whether eight targets is the new normal or a Sunday.
_Data via nflverse._
When Christian Watson's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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