New Orleans Saints: How important is keeping Ben Watson?
The New Orleans Saints have another offseason of cap navigation on the horizon, and one of their most important free agents is a 35-year-old who is coming off of the best season of his career.
There’s never a shortage of incredible stories in any given NFL season, but New Orleans Saints tight end Ben Watson‘s rise to 2015 stardom is up there with the best of them. It couldn’t have been scripted any better, as the Walter Payton Man of the Year finalist showed off surprisingly fleet feet to produce an even more surprising 74/825/6 stat line.
Related Story: Who is the best player from your state?
All of those three numbers are career-highs or tied career-highs, as the Saints offense didn’t miss a beat at the tight end position with Jimmy Graham on the Seattle Seahawks (and out for the majority of the season anyway). Nobody could have predicted that Watson would have a much more successful 2015 season than Graham, especially since it seemed like preseason breakout candidate Josh Hill would be the best bet to soak up targets- and touchdowns- with Graham gone.
Watson’s six TDs were actually behind 5’10”, 189-pound No. 1 wide receiver Brandin Cooks‘s nine, but Watson did beat the Saints top deep threat in one aspect of the game. All of the Saints four most-targeted pass-catchers (Cooks, Watson, Willie Snead, and Marques Colston) had nice-looking catch rates with Drew Brees throwing them the ball, but Watson’s 67.3% catch rate was second on the team behind only Snead’s.
More from NFL Spin Zone
- Dallas Cowboys made the trade everyone else should have made
- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie sleeper everyone should be talking about
- Anthony Richardson putting jaw-dropping talent on display immediately
- Denver Broncos’ stud wide receiver might be out for a while
- Washington Commanders: Three takeaways from win over Ravens
No, Watson isn’t a superstar, and, yes, he was a product of the talent and system around him. However, not every tight end can step right in and catch 74 passes with some jaw-dropping plays, such as his TD catch against the Atlanta Falcons, so we have to give him full credit.
Some are rightfully worried about Watson’s age going forward, but the man has missed just one game in the past four seasons, meaning that he’s still in tip-top shape physically and hasn’t been dealt any bad luck. With no signs of decline last season, it’s hard to say that Watson won’t be able to help a team next year.
Appearing on the “Black and Blue Report” (hat tip to this story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s Christopher Dabe), Watson said that he still enjoys the game and enjoys playing with the Saints organization. By the looks of the interview, it seems like Watson, who is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, would be more likely to retire in 2016 than play outside of the city of New Orleans.
So since Watson wants to stay with the Saints, the focus turns to whether or not the Saints want him and whether or not they can feasibly keep him around. Tight ends aren’t easy to come by, and even the best tight ends rarely have stellar rookie seasons. It’s a tough position to find talent at, and it’s a tough position to transition to in the pros.
Therefore, it makes plenty of sense for the Saints to want to keep Watson around, because not only is he an experienced player who rarely misses a game, but he had a darn good 2015 season. Again, it’s easy to praise him a little too much just based on statistics, but the numbers do matter.
At his age and with retirement coming in any given season, there’s no way he gets more than a one-year deal, so the investment on the Saints part is minimal in all aspects. Unless if Watson decides to pull a shocker on us, he isn’t going to demand much on his next contract, seeing how he made about $1.6 million last season. He’ll get a raise and won’t pay for peanuts with retirement being a viable option, but anything at around $4 million for one season of work would be reasonable. I mean, that’s how much money Owen Daniels and Heath Miller make per year.
The problem is that $4 million is a lot of money for the Saints, and they do have to think about Tim Hightower‘s unrestricted free agency, Drew Brees’s contract situation, and other factors, including the fact that they can make do with less pass-catching talent with Brees at the helm.
If they feel confident in Hill going forward, that could also complicate things further.
It seems like Watson’s future in New Orleans will be dictated by Brees’s situation, but if the finances check out, it would only make sense for both sides to come to terms to a deal. The Saints are by far the best fit for Watson at this stage, and the team itself could use another solid season of play from a dependable tight end.
More nfl spin zone: We put together a team of the greatest players in NFL history
As for comments about his age, they are meaningless. His play last season speaks for itself, and his recent injury history is essentially clean. If the Saints can afford to keep him, they need to, because he holds value to this team as a blocker, leader, and pass-catcher.