Revisiting the moment the Chiefs signed Sammy Watkins and what it means for 2018

The Kansas City Chiefs made a huge splash this offseason when they agreed to sign wide receiver Sammy Watkins back on March 13. Joel Thorman, Shawn Barber and I discussed that moment on the most recent edition of the Arrowhead Pride Chiefs Podcast.

Pete: “[Joel and I] had a conversation the week it happened, and [Joel] said, ‘Oh look, Watkins is getting rumored to Kansas City,’ and I shot it down. I feel like I usually have a pulse on these things on what the Chiefs are going to do. I didn’t think there was a chance he was coming to Kansas City.”

Joel Thorman: “I think your response to that rumor was, ‘Come on.’”

[laughter]

Pete: “I could not fathom them doing it just because I knew how much he would cost.”

Joel: “I didn’t even expect him to cost $16 million.”

Pete: “[Brett Veach], high rolling, brings Watkins in.”

Joel: “Man, I did not expect it at all, but it’s the first day of free agency and the big name came to your team, so immediately I love it...just, this is great without even thinking about it. But it does add a lot of different dimensions to the Chiefs offense. One thing I thought about was last year, the Chiefs did have weapons on offense, and they had their “triplets” already before Watkins got here. I remembered the Titans game when (Travis) Kelce went down, the offense just kind of stalled for the rest of the game. It felt like they were missing one weapon, and I wondered if they went into this offseason remembering that. If we lose one of these guys, we need to have a plan here.”

Shawn Barber: “Sammy Watkins, let me get on that. Sammy Watkins to me is kind of like Chris Paul being added to the Houston Rockets. You already had ‘the Beard’ (James Harden), he’s a great player, but when you add a Sammy Watkins to ‘Cheetah’ (Tyreek Hill) and the other receivers and ‘D-Rob’ (Demarcus Robinson) and Kelce, it elevates those guys because Sammy Watkins dictates one-and-a-half persons to cover. You can’t cover him one-on-one with a corner. The safety has to at least put his eyes, body position. Somebody has to be leaning that way because Sammy Watkins just is a beast at receiver, so to know he’s healthy and to watch him at the end of the year, how healthy he was, getting out of his breaks, accelerating away from [cornerbacks], catching the ball away from his body, making the tough catches, I mean he was doing that with a subpar quarterback, and to imagine how (Patrick) Mahomes could let that thing fly. Sammy Watkins is one of the premier deep threats as far as catching the ball beyond 30-40 yards. It’s a win-win situation.”

We react to the full Chiefs offseason, answer your tweets and determine who is the “most talented Chief” using bracketology on the show. You may find it here or by using the player below. The podcast is also available on iTunes and Google Play. New episodes every Wednesday.