{"id":11957,"date":"2025-10-23T02:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T02:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11957\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T02:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T02:03:07","slug":"packers-christian-watson-expects-to-make-his-season-debut-sunday-at-pittsburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/11957\/","title":{"rendered":"Packers\u2019 Christian Watson expects to make his season debut Sunday at Pittsburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) \u2014 While so much of the focus of Sunday\u2019s prime-time matchup between Green Bay and Pittsburgh has been on Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers<\/a> facing his former team, Christian Watson plans on it being a special night for him, too.<\/p>\n

The Packers wide receiver expects to return to game action for the first time in nearly 10 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my plan,\u201d Watson said after Wednesday\u2019s practice. \u201cI say it every week \u2014 obviously just leaving it up to the trainers \u2014 but my goal and my plan is to play this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

If his plan comes to fruition, it will mark Watson\u2019s first game action since he tore the anterior cruciate ligament<\/a> in his right knee during the Packers\u2019 Jan. 5 regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears.<\/p>\n

The Packers opened Watson\u2019s 21-day practice window<\/a> on Oct. 6, when they returned from their bye week, shortly after signing him to a one-year extension that includes $11 million in new money and keeps him under contract with the Packers for next season, alleviating concerns he might have had about trying to rush back to game action and earn a new contract.<\/p>\n

The team could wait until after Sunday night\u2019s game to activate him from the physically unable to perform list. Watson, whose in-practice workload has steadily increased over the past two weeks, believes his surgically repaired knee is ready.<\/p>\n

In fact, the 2022 second-round pick believes his knee has been ready. Watson was listed as a limited participant in Wednesday\u2019s practice,<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say I could\u2019ve played last week, too, to be honest,\u201d Watson said of the Packers\u2019 27-23 win<\/a> at Arizona on Sunday. \u201cBut, obviously, (I\u2019ve) got to make sure I\u2019m hearing everybody\u2019s opinions on everything and being as smart as possible about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that Watson brings a different dimension to the Packers\u2019 offense.<\/p>\n

He finished last season with 29 receptions for a career-high 620 yards and two touchdowns, with his 21.4-yard per-catch average leading the team and ranking second in the NFL.<\/p>\n

With rookie first-round pick Matthew Golden having emerged in recent weeks, Watson\u2019s return would give the Packers two wide receivers with elite speed to stretch defenses and open up other aspects of the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201c(That\u2019s) a lot of speed, man,\u201d said Golden, who has caught seven passes for 123 yards over the past two games. \u201cI\u2019m excited for him coming back. Definitely going to open up a lot of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched him work each and every day to get back where he is now. I\u2019m excited for him. I\u2019m ready to see him go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final call on whether Watson is ready to go will be made by the medical staff, of course. And while the Steelers\u2019 home field at Acrisure Stadium has drawn criticism from players in recent weeks, Watson insisted that the field conditions shouldn\u2019t matter in his comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m at 100 percent, obviously, in years past, I wasn\u2019t thinking about the surfaces,\u201d Watson said. \u201cIf I\u2019m worried about the turf, then honestly, I probably wouldn\u2019t be playing, anyway. My goal is to feel 100 percent, so that\u2019s not really something that we\u2019re thinking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) \u2014 While so much of the focus of Sunday\u2019s prime-time matchup between Green Bay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3269,9399,9397,4917,3837,9400,1418,73,75,74,1833,9398,6543],"class_list":["post-11957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-aaron-rodgers","tag-acl","tag-christian-watson","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-injury","tag-jordan-love","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-return","tag-wide-receiver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}