Christian Watson or Romeo Doubs: Who’s WR1?

With the 2023 NFL Draft around the corner and the Green Bay Packers making few off-season moves to bolster their wide receiver room, it appears the team is banking on its young receiver corps to step up. As a result, the question on everyone's mind is who will emerge as the future leader of the group. With Allen Lazard's departure to the Jets, the focus has shifted to two main contenders for the job: Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.

Let’s start with Christian Watson, our mid-season golden boy. Don’t get the wrong idea, I have a ton of hope for this kid and even bought a signed jersey of his. I just don’t want to ignore the fact that he was dropping more balls than a clumsy juggler in a windstorm throughout the entire season. That’s not to say that he didn’t show exceptional promise midway through the season with his playmaking ability. He proved his versatility carrying the ball on jet sweeps and made it known he has a nose for the endzone. In a spectacular 4 game stretch, Watson boasted 7 TDs and 313 yards receiving, complimented by a 46 yard rushing TD. This late round draft pickup showed he could become THAT guy for the Pack. The only thing stopping me from going all in on Watson is the fact that my hands start to sweat when the ball is headed his way. With his speed and agility, there’s no question Christian can become the next star wide receiver in the league: he just needs to figure out those hands.

Although a good all-around wide receiver, Allen Lazard failed to step up into a solidified WR #1 role early in the season. Affected by his sporadic injuries, Lazard saw less targets leading into the first Lions game of 2022. This was the game when Doubs went out with an injury in the first

quarter. Until his injury, Romeo Doubs boasted 49 total targets while our “WR #1” Lazard had received just 41.In addition to earning Aaron Rodgers’ confidence early last season, Doubs proved to be a reliable target. In the first half of the season prior to his injury, Doubs displayed exceptional potential by catching all eight of his targets against the Buccaneers for 73 yards and a touchdown. He also proved himself to be a clutch playmaker with the spectacular catch in the endzone against the Bills that prevented the game from turning into a blowout. Although Doubs didn’t produce late into the season due to injury, I believe he proved early on why he may just turn into the reliable, play making wide receiver that the Packers are used to having on their squad.

With all of that being said, last year was both of these guys’ first season in the NFL. Both had dropped balls, injury trouble, and mistakes throughout the entire season. I think with more experience and a year under their belt, Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs can become powerful weapons for the Packers. I have extremely high hopes for both players and hope to see Christian’s mid season dominance become a common expectation in the future. Nevertheless, I’d put my money on Jordan Love targeting the consistent Romeo Doubs first next season.