10 NFL free agency signings for 2021 that could backfire

2. Sammy Watkins, Wide Receiver, Baltimore Ravens

There aren’t many players who can be more dangerous than Sammy Watkins in Week 1 of the NFL season. There also aren’t many players who can disappear the rest of the way quite like Sammy Watkins can.

Taken at No. 4 overall in the 2014 NFL Draft out of Clemson, Watkins never lived up to the hype that he came into the NFL with and the Buffalo Bills wound up trading him to the Los Angeles Rams. He spent one season there before signing a huge three-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs.

In all, he had 129 receptions for 1,613 yards and eight touchdowns for the Chiefs but considering he was paid $48 million for those three seasons, he should have had much more than that.

And if it wasn’t for his Week 1 performances in each of the past two seasons, his numbers would have been much worse. In 2020, Watkins had 82 yards on seven receptions with a touchdown but the prior year, he had 198 yards and three touchdowns on nine receptions.

Even with his shortcomings, the Baltimore Ravens elected to bring him in this offseason on a one-year $6 million deal. While that contract is nothing like the one he had in Kansas City, it could still be a mistake for the Ravens.

Watkins now has a pretty deep wide receiver corps with Marquise Brown, Rashod Bateman, Tylan Wallace, and Myles Boykin. Watkins could end up being a player who takes up snaps that more consistent receivers should be getting.