just for discussion: did the Rams limit how they used Watkins?

Watkins: Andy Reid helping me become complete WR

Herbie Teope

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000938691/article/watkins-andy-reid-helping-me-become-complete-wr

Wide receiver Sammy Watkins’ acclimation process has gone well since joining the Kansas City Chiefs on a three-year, $48 million free-agent deal in March.

Despite being on a new team, Watkins turned heads during organized team activities and he embraces the opportunity to absorb coach Andy Reid’s offensive scheme.

“This offense is the broadest offense I’ve ever been in,” Watkins told reporters on the last day of OTAs, via the Chiefs’ official website. “It’s definitely a mental challenge, but I think that’s what kind of gets me up every day to study the plays and come out here encouraged because anybody can get the ball and I’ve got to learn all the positions.

“I just can’t learn one position. I have to be focused and tuned in, in meetings. You have to do that off-the-field work and stay in your [play] book.”

Watkins raises a good point when it comes to Reid’s version of the West Coast offense.

Reid’s offense typically spreads the ball around, which has contributed to just five wide receivers producing a 1,000-yard receiving effort in a single season between two teams since Reid became a head coach in 1999: Tyreek Hill(2017), Jeremy Maclin (2015), Terrell Owens (2004), Kevin Curtis (2007) and DeSean Jackson, who did it twice (2009-10).

Hill wasn’t alone in 2017, as tight end Travis Kelce also topped the mark with 1,038 yards receiving.

With the 6-foot-1, 211-pound Watkins, who possesses 4.43 speed in the 40-yard dash, the Chiefs add another downfield threat and he produced 1,047 yards receiving while with the Buffalo Bills in 2015.

Watkins’ production has slipped the past two seasons, but he spent the offseason workout program learning new responsibilities while under Reid’s close eye.

“He’s helped me in this short amount of time with just being a compete receiver, not just being a, ‘Oh, he just runs go-routes,'” Watkins told reporters. “I’ve got to learn the whole route tree. My standard that he wants, he’s called me out in meetings, which that’s what you need as a player, and I take full advantage of all those things.”

While the offseason workouts are accomplished without pads and no-contact practices, the early returns on Watkins are positive.

“We were moving him everywhere,” Reid told reporters on the final day of minicamp two weeks ago, via the team’s official website. “He hasn’t had to do that in his career; we had him all over the place. I thought he handled it very well.”

Should Watkins continue his progression throughout training camp, the Chiefs’ offense will give opposing defense plenty to think about in 2018.

Watkins, Hill, Kelce and second-year running back Kareem Hunt are a more than capable set of weapons for quarterback Patrick Mahomes.[

InvaderRam wrote:

the only problem as i see it is watkins came in late, so yeah, at the beginning maybe they had to limit how they used him.

but he was a veteran receiver. a lot of this falls on watkins too.

Don’t mean to overplay this issue but it keeps coming up. In The Slow Time Before Camp, it’s an issue people keep writing about.

So here’s more. From an obviously very pro-Chiefs perspective.

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Sammy Watkins earning rave reviews as Chiefs challenge him by moving him all around

The Chiefs’ new receiver is handling the added responsibilities that Andy Reid’s offense requires

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/sammy-watkins-earning-rave-reviews-as-chiefs-challenge-him-by-moving-him-all-around/

Sammy Watkins has been with the Chiefs for a little more than three months, but he’s already demonstrating his potential to thrive in Andy Reid’s demanding but dynamite offensive system. After giving Watkins a three-year, $48 million deal in free agency, the Chiefs have thrown the gauntlet at Watkins by asking him to move all over the place and challenging his mind.

So far so good, according to Reid, who acknowledged that he has “overloaded” Watkins to this point.

“We’re moving him all over the place, and he’s handled it,” Reid said, per ESPN’s Adam Teicher. “We’ve overloaded him with that. That’s how we do it in this offense. That’s something new for him. You can tell he’s a guy that takes it away from here and studies. When we’re doing all these different formations, you’ve got to do that. You just can’t get it all when you’re here. You’ve got to go back and you’ve got to review, and he’s done that and he’s really limited the mistakes for all we’ve given him.”

It might be difficult to pick up, but Reid’s offense gets results. Reid, who is entering his 20th season as an NFL head coach (14 years with the Eagles and this will be his sixth with the Chiefs), has trotted out a top-10 scoring offense 11 times. In 2017, he turned Alex Smith into the league’s highest-rated passer and top-rated deep-ball thrower. Now, after trading Smith to Washington, Reid is developing 2017 first-round pick Patrick Mahomes into the franchise’s new long-term quarterback. To help Mahomes develop into the kind of quarterback he’s shown flashes of being in preseason outings and one regular-season game, Reid brought in Watkins, who is expected to add another dimension to an already explosive offense.

“He made some catches sometimes that I don’t know how they’re possible,” Mahomes said.

On his part, Watkins called mastering Reid’s offense “a mental challenge.”

“This offense is the broadest offense I’ve ever been in,” Watkins said. “It’s definitely a mental challenge. But I think that’s what kind of gets me up every day to study the plays and come out here encouraged. Anybody can get the ball and I’ve got to learn all the positions. I can’t just learn one position. I have to be focused and tuned in, in meetings. You have to do that off-the-field work and stay in your [playbook].

“You just get more opportunities on linebackers [and] safeties. It’s definitely easier working against a linebacker or getting open against safeties.”

Watkins, a former first-round pick of the Bills, hasn’t lived up to expectations coming out Clemson due to a variety of factors, with injuries being one of them. In four seasons (three in Buffalo and another with the Rams), Watkins has played in 52 of 64 possible games, catching 192 passes for 3,052 yards and 25 touchdowns. On a per-season basis, those numbers average out to 763 yards and 6.25 touchdowns. So Watkins hasn’t been great, but he also hasn’t been bad. He’s been solid. It’s only because of his first-round billing that he’s viewed by some as a disappointment.

He’s joining an offense, though, that should maximize his talent. If anyone knows how to get the most out of talented playmakers, it’s Reid. Just look at how he’s used Tyreek Hill, Kareem Hunt, and Travis Kelce.

“He’s a full-speed guy,” Watkins said of Reid. “Every day you come out here, every rep, it’s full speed. That’s just going to help me translate that during the game. He’s helped me in this short amount of time with just being a compete receiver, not just being [a receiver who just runs go-routes]. I’ve got to learn the whole route tree. The standard that he wants … he’s called me out in meetings. That’s what you want as a player. I take full advantage of all those things.

“I’ve never been in an offense like this, around a coach that just feels like he’s obsessed with the game and makes you want to be obsessed with it, too, to know more about the offense. The more you break it down the more you can be available and switching different positions.”

So, let’s set reasonable expectations for him. A year ago, Watkins played in the best offense of his career in Los Angeles with Todd Gurley running the ball, Jared Goff throwing the ball, and of course, Sean McVay calling the plays. Despite the setting, Watkins didn’t submit an optimal stat line, catching only 39 passes for only 593 yards. Eight touchdowns salvaged his season.

Setting expectations is difficult because we don’t really know how Mahomes will fare in what is essentially his first season. But there’s reason to expect Watkins, if he can stay healthy, to see his stat line grow. For all of the improvements Goff made last season, he still wasn’t the best deep-ball thrower. Writing for Music City Miracles, John R. Kinsley explained that Goff’s accuracy on throws that traveled at least 16 yards in the air was 43.9 percent last season. According to Kinsley, Goff was accurate on six of 20 passes that went 16-plus yards in the air and targeted Watkins.

Meanwhile, in a very small sample size, Mahomes has shown the ability to make incredible throws deep downfield.

Those throws will likely target Watkins in 2018. Again, we don’t know if Mahomes will perform on deep passes over the course of an entire season. We don’t know if Watkins can stay healthy. And we do know that the Chiefs boast a wide array of weapons, all of which will be incorporated into the offense.

But the Chiefs did not give Watkins a monster contract so that he could be a sporadic home-run threat. Based on the quotes above, we should expect them to keep him involved by moving him around the field, creating mismatches against slower linebackers in the slot, and asking him to do things he hasn’t really done in years past.

Watkins is just one reason why the Chiefs are going to trot out one of the most intriguing offenses in the coming season.