Benjamin Watson - TE - New Orleans Saints (1 Viewer)

[SaintsInDome2006]

The man has 4 pages of threads and they can't be accessed. Shame.

Well after a night like tonight the man deserves his own thread (again).

Started in 2% of CBS leagues, tonight he posted 12/10/127/1, and he could have had another long TD if Brees hadn't thought he was Jimmy Graham for a moment and overthrown him.

Great guy, he was a former 1st round pick of BB and the Pats in case anyone has forgotten. Anyway, great performance and I hope he has more in the near future.

 

[Biabreakable]

Drew Brees loves throwing to the TE.

 

[Futz]

Drew Brees loves throwing to the TE.

Not this year. Watson and Hill haven't gone over 45 yards all year until this game. This seemed like the game plan to me this week. They saw some obvious ATL weakness and exploited it. I wouldn't count on it going forward. Chasing these points with Watson will be a mistake IMO.

 

[Righetti]

Futz,

I agree that this could be a chasing points situation. It feel like he has to be add to your roster right now. See how it plays out next week, if he goes back to a 2/22/0 line, drop him

if Brees continues to go to him, it might just be the case there Is some real potential. Sometimes a veteran guy earns the trust of a QB on a team that needs consistency and it's lightning in a bottle for a year (Mushin Muhammad, Brandon Lloyd come to mind)

I'd look to add

 

[shadyridr]

He scored a td last week too

 

[Futz]

Futz,

I agree that this could be a chasing points situation. It feel like he has to be add to your roster right now. See how it plays out next week, if he goes back to a 2/22/0 line, drop him

if Brees continues to go to him, it might just be the case there Is some real potential. Sometimes a veteran guy earns the trust of a QB on a team that needs consistency and it's lightning in a bottle for a year (Mushin Muhammad, Brandon Lloyd come to mind)

I'd look to add

If you are thin and have the bench space, I can see adding him as a bye week stab in the dark. This is exactly what I did with Tamme this past week with the anticipated marginal results.

 

[dickey moe]

Would've been a great Fanduel pick this week.

 

[Biabreakable]

Drew Brees loves throwing to the TE.

Not this year. Watson and Hill haven't gone over 45 yards all year until this game. This seemed like the game plan to me this week. They saw some obvious ATL weakness and exploited it. I wouldn't count on it going forward. Chasing these points with Watson will be a mistake IMO.

Why not this year?

Brees has shown this tendency his whole career. Now that the Saints have changed so many things on offense it makes sense that Brees gets back to what has worked for him in the past. It does have to do with how Atlanta was playing defense of course. They were playing a lot of zone so Brees was attacking the seams of the zone and when the Falcons blitzed a LB Brees threw to the guy that LB uncovered.

Over 6 games now Watson has 33 targets 25 receptions 266 yards 2TD this averages out to 5 targets 4 receptions 44 yards/game.

His per game stats have been

5 targets 3 receptions 19 yards

4 targets 2 receptions 12 yards

4 targets 4 receptions 42 yards

3 targets 3 receptions 30 yards

5 targets 3 receptions 36 yards 1TD

12 targets 10 receptions 127 yards 1TD

Although it has been a bumpy start for the Saints and they certainly are still adjusting to new personnel I don't see any reason why Watson won't continue to see 5 targets a game, obviously I don't expect Watson at 34 years old to put up 10 receptions each week but it is possible he sees a few more targets than 5 per game moving forward.

Watson was a 1st round pick at one point and he has some talent. He has just been inconsistent and struggled with injuries IIRC.

 

[Interseptopus]

Jamarcus Russell was a first round pick once too.

The guy has done nothing all season and has one big game on a Thursday and suddenly people's pants are getting a little tighter

 

[Insein]

Jamarcus Russell was a first round pick once too.

The guy has done nothing all season and has one big game on a Thursday and suddenly people's pants are getting a little tighter

I get your hesitation but consider that the Saints looked the best they have on offense all season last night. Brees was efficient and found Watson a lot like he used to do with Graham. This could be something a Vet like Brees would find some confidence in by using his TE as a security blanket to get the offense going.

The Saints are do or die every week now. So if something is working, they will go to it. I'd pick him up just to see because with Brees the potential is there.

 

[Futz]

Jamarcus Russell was a first round pick once too.

The guy has done nothing all season and has one big game on a Thursday and suddenly people's pants are getting a little tighter

I get your hesitation but consider that the Saints looked the best they have on offense all season last night. Brees was efficient and found Watson a lot like he used to do with Graham. This could be something a Vet like Brees would find some confidence in by using his TE as a security blanket to get the offense going. The Saints are do or die every week now. So if something is working, they will go to it. I'd pick him up just to see because with Brees the potential is there.

Even though NO is not a good team, I do believe they have good coaching and that's what you saw here. A game plan that worked. Not the coming out party of TE2/3s. Next week they may run, the following week it will be the WRs. They don't do anything well enough to ride it out. They must try to exploit a weakness to succeed with any consistency.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Jamarcus Russell was a first round pick once too. The guy has done nothing all season and has one big game on a Thursday and suddenly people's pants are getting a little tighter

Watson is a vet, and he's had a 100 target season before with the Browns. He has physical ability to perform on a high level and the need is there in NO. He's obviously not Graham but Payton's skill is getting receivers open in space and Brees' skill is in finding them and constantly exploiting them. Now will he return to 4/40/0 next week? Sure could happen. But I don't think we can be sure he won't have another big game either.

 

[Bracie Smathers]

Ben Watson had some great combine numbers when he was drafted and never really was used much until he went to Cleveland but TE Jordan Cameron blew up before he was positioned behind Jimmy Graham.

Saints lack a go-to #1 WR and are obviously without Pro Bowl TE Jimmy Graham and it looks as though WR Marques Colston is winding down.

New Orleans has lost a ton of targets over the past year.

TE Ben Watson could start stepping up to fill a portion of the vacuum.

 

[The_Fonz]

Gotta say, John Hansen called him out as the deep sleeper pick of the game. I didn't have the stones to do it since I just grabbed Delanie Walker in one league and have Gates in the other.

I have Snead and my biggest fear is what happened You can never predict what Brees is going to do, it was like chasing Lance Moore's points.

 

[BroncoFreak_2K3]

The man has 4 pages of threads and they can't be accessed. Shame.

Well after a night like tonight the man deserves his own thread (again).

Started in 2% of CBS leagues, tonight he posted 12/10/127/1, and he could have had another long TD if Brees hadn't thought he was Jimmy Graham for a moment and overthrown him.

Great guy, he was a former 1st round pick of BB and the Pats in case anyone has forgotten. Anyway, great performance and I hope he has more in the near future.

 

[The Dude]

He's an add this week. May not pan out but the upside is too huge to ignore. Has potential to fill 80% of the Graham whole in this offense.

 

[Insein]

Stud

 

[purestrength]

Thinking out loud: Why didn't I replace L.Green with Watson in my lineup when I heard Gates would be playing for SD today? Why?!!!

 

[rickyg]

He is filling the void that jimmy graham left. And quite nicely I'd say! Huge pickup. Anyone who was paying attention should have noticed that he has been gaining steam last 4 weeks. The saints have been searching for an offensive identity and they found one when Brees started looking to Watson as a legitimate jimmy graham replacement.

Last week he was caught 1yd shy of the end zone TWICE. Had he converted on those he would have been the hottest ww pickup last week. He surely will be this week.

Benched Cobb for him today. Not gonna lie I was soiling my pants while making the move and until I started to see Watson putting up numbers lol

Moving forward this guy is top 10 if not top 5 te. Brees and the saints are starting to hit on all cylinders and peaking at the perfect time.

I have Eifert and it will be a struggle to bench Watson for him while Watson is playing like this.

 

[duaneok66]

I have both too - hard to sit Eifert.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

You have to say the numbers Watson has put up 2 of the last 3 weeks have been absolutely astronomically insane.

12/10/127/1

10/9/147/1

(with a measly 4/59/0 in between).

 

[LOCO]

and the schedule is a cushy!

 

[Warhogs]

Watson seems to be a case where you can sometimes benefit from chasing a player after a big game. I don't think he is top tier but overall I think he is a solid TE the rest of the way. I'm glad I chased and added him in a couple leagues after his first big game.

 

[zftcg]

Grabbed him as a Kelce bye-week fill-in. We can only start one TE, so if he produces this week I may try to move one of them and upgrade my WR. Based on the fact that he has a better QB, a less frustrating offense, and a great playoff schedule, I think I might want to keep Watson and cash in on Kelce's brand name.

 

[rickyg]

You have to say the numbers Watson has put up 2 of the last 3 weeks have been absolutely astronomically insane.

12/10/127/1

10/9/147/1

(with a measly 4/59/0 in between).

AND anyone who watched the week 7 (4/59) game would know that he almost had a MONSTER 2 td game in week 7 too. He was stopped at the 1 yard line TWICE, and the RBS capitalized.

If he gets one more yard on both those catches were looking at 4/61/2. And he'd be a top 2 or 3 te in most scoring systems. AND Brees would be too 5.

So really we are looking at 3 weeks in a row of amazing production, and the trend started several games before that.

I think it's safe to say that Watson is now a focal point of the saints offense ROS and he has admirably filled the role of jimmy graham for Brees. He's their best red zone and end zone target (what we all thought Coleman would be)

I'm not even looking at him as a te anymore. He's a must start wr on one of the suddenly revived most potent offenses in the NFL with a HOF qb locked in on him and an easy schedule ros.

Don't look at his age look at the production. He's moving well around the field so who cares that he is 34? F me if he's not a top 2 or 3 te or the #2 te last 3 weeks.

He's a buy high rt now. I have him locked into my flex spot this week over Cobb, who I benched for him in week 8 as well.

His week 9 matchup vs tenn is another great matchup. He's in my flex until this trend stops.