GREEN BAY – No elaborate speeches were required inside the Packers' receiver room this week.
To a man, every wideout on the roster understood what needs to be done after seeing Christian Watson go down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament during Sunday's regular-season finale against the Chicago Bears.
A 6-foot-4 receiver equipped with 4.3 speed, Watson has been a field-tilter for Green Bay since it drafted him in the second round out of North Dakota State in 2022.
More than just explosive plays and touchdowns, the 25-year-old wideout has established himself as a locker-room leader while taking ownership of one of the NFL's youngest receiving corps.
As much as it hurts to press on without Watson, an unspoken rallying cry began among his peers leading into Sunday's NFC Wild Card playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"He's one of our leaders, he's one of our brothers," second-year receiver Malik Heath said. "Anytime anything like that happens, I feel like it happened to me too."
Watson put an exhaustive amount of work into getting healthy again after a recurring hamstring injury derailed his 2023 season, even traveling down to UW-Madison earlier this year to do additional testing to get to the root of his soft-tissue issues.
It worked. He set career highs in both starts (15) and offensive snaps (555). A testament to his character, Watson also stayed patient when the ball wasn't coming his way earlier this year.
In the end, Watson needed just 29 catches to produce 620 yards and two touchdowns for an astounding average of 21.4 yards per catch, the top mark by a Packers player with at least 25 catches since Hall of Famer James Lofton's 22.0-yard average in 1984.
Although Watson sustained an injury to his other knee during Green Bay's 34-0 shutout win over New Orleans in Week 16, he was back two weeks later to help overcome the absence of fellow third-year wideout Romeo Doubs (illness) against the Bears.
Watson played 10 snaps before crumbling to the ground while running a route during the opening minute of the second quarter. A pit quickly formed in the stomach of Green Bay's receivers.
"Christian is our guy. We love Christian to death," said receiver Bo Melton, who trained with Watson leading up to the 2022 NFL Draft. "To see that go down, it hurt me to my heart. Obviously, we gotta step up as a group but having Christian is definitely a big part of this."
There is a kinship among the Packers' receiving corps that began when Green Bay drafted Watson and Doubs in 2022 and followed with the selection of Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks the following year.
Those two draft classes also produced Melton and Heath, who entered the league as undrafted free agents. At the beginning, the wideouts were inundated with questions about whether their room was too young, inexperienced and raw to succeed.
They did, elevating the Packers back to the playoffs and becoming the first No. 7 seed to topple a No. 2 seed with a 48-32 win over the Cowboys in Dallas.
It brought the room closer. The receivers began hanging out together more both during the season and in the offseason. While they're all for playing time and targets, the wideouts also became each other's biggest supporters.
"We stuck with each other since they got drafted here," Melton said. "We felt like when our first year was here, everybody was kind of against us like, 'Oh these young cats, they don't know what they're doing.' That's kind of what brought us together. I feel like we took that and elevated that and grew relationships with it."
Losing a person like Watson requires more than just a "next man up" mentality because of the all-around impact he's had on the team. Yet, each receiver is ready to do his part.
Melton brings elite speed, which came in handy during Green Bay's run last year that started without Watson. Heath has shown a knack for making clutch catches like his leaping 41-yard snag on third-and-21 during the Packers' go-ahead drive late in the game against the Bears last Sunday.
Wicks has now had multiple catches in six consecutive games and Reed eclipsed 1,000 yards from scrimmage against Chicago, notching his second straight year of leading Green Bay in receptions and receiving yards.
The Packers are preparing for a significant test this Sunday against the Eagles and their top-ranked secondary but should have Doubs back from his illness.
"We always say we go as a team or the team (goes) as we go," said Wicks of the receiver room. "Receivers gotta get off to a fast start, a hot start. If we get off to a fast start, the offense starts fast."
The receivers know they'll have the support of Watson, whom Heath said dropped by the receiver room to say hi to the guys before getting treatment on Wednesday.
As Watson begins his own road to recovery, the Packers will carry his work ethic and professionalism with them the rest of the way. Because that brotherhood that's been formed these past two years goes well beyond those 1 1/3 acres on that field.
"We're gonna do it for him," Heath said. "Because he be trying to stay healthy the whole year so he can get to this playoff point. We just gonna do it for him. Everybody gonna give it their all for him."
