Sammy Watkins isn’t going to go down as a bust. He’s been too productive in his career and flashed the play-making potential that made the Buffalo Bills move up to No. 4 in the 2014 NFL Draft in stints with the Bills, Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs.
That said, Watkins has not been the player that many figured he would be when he came out of Clemson and based on an interview with Bleacher Report’s Ty Dunne, it seems Watkins has no one to blame but himself.
In the wide-ranging interview, Watkins talks plenty about his first three years in Buffalo. The receiver looked on his way to stardom after recording 125 receptions for 2,029 yards and 15 touchdowns in 29 games, but was setting himself up for failure off the field.
According to Watkins, he partied nightly at Chippewa and smoked plenty as well.
Via Dunne’s article, “What Sammy Watkins Believes”:
"He knows what everyone saw: a ceramic-boned bust. From broken ribs to a hip tear to a glute, a hamstring, a calf and, of course, the foot, Watkins could’ve been suplexed into 100 tables over his first three years in the NFL and come away healthier than this. The Bills had mortgaged their future not for Khalil Mack or Aaron Donald or Odell Beckham Jr. back in 2014 but rather for another reason for Buffalonians to curse the sports gods.
But here's what you did not see: a 21-year-old drinking every night. That's no exaggeration. Watkins partied "every night"—yes, "every night," he repeats—turning downtown Buffalo's Chippewa Street into his own personal frat party. Beer, liquor—Watkins didn't discriminate in lighting his $12.8 million signing bonus on fire with friends who followed him north. "Living fast," he calls it, holding up a pretend blunt. Yeah, he smoked plenty too.
He treated his body terribly.
“I would go out and get wasted,” he says. “Wasted wasted.”
Then he’d wake up, go to practice and suffer the consequences. Along the way, his body deteriorated. When he thinks back on it, he admits now: Those injuries were largely a result of his own behavior."
Watkins’ injuries were a mix of bad luck and self-sabotage. He told Dunne that after he suffered another foot injury in his third season, he stopped attending rehabilitation treatments and went as far as to remove his walking boot so he could jog around Buffalo.
“Instead of getting scheduled treatment, he stayed away from the Bills facility. Nobody heard a peep from Watkins as he, admittedly idiotically, ripped the boot off his foot to jog around town. He returned to action too soon, in two-and-a-half months, and only damaged his foot further. Of course, he was doing all this damage to himself, but he couldn’t see that. Not at the time. His life was at a crossroads.”
It’s likely that Sean McDermott heard plenty about Watkins after he became the team’s head coach in 2017. McDermott, a no-nonsense head coach, likely wanted to see what he had in Watkins before making any decisions on the wide receiver. To Watkins, however, McDermott was “bad energy.”
"Reemerging in July, Watkins felt nothing but bad energy from new Bills head coach Sean McDermott. Like McDermott was testing him, triggering him, waging a “mental war” to make him explode. Watkins never demanded a trade, but he wanted out. Needed out. Literally stared into a mirror in his St. John Fisher College dorm room at Bills training camp and prayed, nightly, Get me out of here. Please, God.
“And,” Watkins says, ‘I think McDermott heard my prayers.’"
It likely did not take long for McDermott to realize that Watkins was the type of player who could derail the culture he was hoping to build in Buffalo. With Watkins’ stock still high, McDermott was able to acquire a second-round pick and cornerback E.J. Gaines for Watkins and a sixth-round pick.
Watkins, to his credit, has gone on to win a Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, but it’s unlikely that he will ever reach the ceiling that many envisioned for him. The wide receiver needed to restructure his contract this offseason to avoid looking for a fourth team in seven seasons.
Dunne’s fascinating piece on Watkins can be read here: What Sammy Watkins Believes
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