Last year, the Bills selected Sammy Watkins with the No. 4 overall pick in the NFL Draft. This year, he isn’t receiving the looks within the offense you would expect for someone taken that high.
During his rookie season, Watkins caught 65 passes for 982 yards and six touchdowns. At his current pace, he won’t come close to duplicating those numbers. Granted, he has missed two games due to a calf injury, but even when he’s been on the field, Watkins doesn’t feel he’s being looked at often enough.
“That’s what I get mad at, when I don’t get looked at,” Watkins told The Buffalo News. “I can look at film and his eyes go straight that way and I’m not getting looked at, at all. That’s when I get frustrated. When I have one-on-one coverage, go to me. I don’t care what’s going on over there. I don’t care if he’s open. When I get one on one, just target me.”
“You came up to draft me and I’m not getting targets, that’s a problem,” he said. “You’re making me look bad and you’re making yourself look bad. Why not make both of us look good?”
To say Sammy Watkins is frustrated would be quite the understatement. Last year, Watkins was targeted on passes 128 times (eight per game). In 2015, that number is 12 in three games.
We often complain when athletes give cliche-filled or guarded answers to questions. Watkins obviously did the opposite of that this time and around, and will likely get crushed for it by some, as is generally the case when receivers publicly demand the football. Buffalo moved up five spots to take Watkins with the expectation he would be a game changer for their offense. It’s tough to be that when you aren’t seeing the football.
Watkins reportedly feels like he needs 10+ targets a game to be most effective, which would be an increase over last season. At this point, I would imagine anything over the four per game he’s seen so far this season would be welcomed.
