Who Should I Start? Christian Watson or Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Tuesday, March 26, 10:44 PM

The Green Bay Packers feel that they have a better grasp of where wide receiver Christian Watson (hamstring) stands after he underwent a body scan at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this offseason with the hope of preventing future flare-ups. Watson has battled hamstring injuries in both of his two seasons in the NFL, with the 6-foot-4, 208-pounder missing eight games in 2023, playing just 446 offensive snaps. It hasn't just been hamstring injuries for the 24-year-old, and he's played in only 23 games in his first two seasons to quickly develop an injury-prone label. But when healthy, he's caught 69 of 119 targets for 1,033 yards and 12 touchdowns, adding two rushing scores. There's intriguing upside given the nature of Green Bay's improving offense under quarterback Jordan Love, but Watson's durability makes him a risk/reward fantasy selection heading into his third year.

Monday, January 8, 5:25 AM

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught three of his five targets for 14 yards in Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals. The receptions were tied with tight ends Will Dissly and Colby Parkinson for the team lead but made for a quiet end to a modest debut season for the Ohio State product. Selected 20th overall in the 2023 draft, there were hopes that Smith-Njigba would replicate the first-year successes of his former college teammates Garrett Wilson and Christian Olave. As it was, Smith-Njigba proved to be firmly entrenched as the third receiver on Seattle's depth chart and was probably lucky to see the amount of work that he did. His production was also hindered by the routes designed for him, as his average depth of target of 5.8 yards was among the lowest in the league. His rookie year will conclude with 63 receptions for 628 yards and four touchdowns in 17 games.