The Kansas City Chiefs were able to find a great player off of the scrap heap last year when they needed him the most, and boy was it a great decision.
Just when the Chiefs’ roster wasn’t looking the best in certain areas, they fixed it better than we would have ever known and won the Super Bowl.
Justin Watson went from catching passes from Tom Brady and beating the Chiefs in the Super Bowl to catching passes from Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs got him for the veteran minimum, just when their receiver room lost Tyreek Hill, and the only familiar face was Mecole Hardman, they got more speed.
But, he had to get Mahomes’ attention one way, so he did something in the offseason when he was working out with the receivers and Mahomes in Texas. He showed everyone exactly what he brings.
“Coach gave us the first two weeks of OTAs and said, hey, you guys do it virtually,” Watson said. “We’ll have meetings over the phone and just work out together in Texas.
And that’s where Pat’s at. So we went down there and, you know, I just try to run as fast as I possibly could. “You know, I was a big white guy and I said, hey, man, he’s got to see some speed on. He let the first couple of go balls out there and I made a point to run out in front of them and kind of wait on them.”
“And then from then on, he said, ok, this guy can roll and regularly got team practices. He started putting it out there for me. It’s been fun playing with them.”
That resulted in an amazing season for Watson. Sure, he didn’t have 1,000 receiving yards or 10 touchdowns, but he was effective when the Chiefs needed him most and he made huge plays when the Chiefs needed it.
In fact, he had the best season of his career as a Chief. “I think I have as many yards this year as I had in the previous four,” Watson continued. “So there was a lot of work since the last time I took an offensive snap in Tampa. I think it was 999 days between touchdowns in Tampa to my first one in Kansas City.
So there were so many ups and downs and hard work and injuries and surgeries in between there and to see it come to fruition and get to play in the Super Bowl is really rewarding.” The Chiefs got a steal in Watson last offseason. Now he is a free agent again, and we have yet to hear anything from him. It would be great if they could find a way to bring him back.
