Bleacher Report’s Ty Dunne talked to Sammy Watkins for five hours

Bleacher Report’s Ty Dunne made national waves this week with his in-depth article on the beliefs and mentality of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins. We spoke to Dunne on our latest episode of the AP Editors Show. On the show, we found out Dunne spent five hours with Watkins in a Florida restaurant after the season.

“I do think that he was a good solider (in 2019),” Dunne explained, based upon his conversations with Watkins and other Chiefs receivers. “I think that in the moment, he genuinely was a great teammate. I think he — as he put — was the one talking to younger teammates in trying to help them understand selflessness and the fact that it’s about team. He did kind of take a back step from that Jacksonville game, obviously exploded, on through to the playoffs — that two-and-a-half month span, he was what, a third or fourth option? He just wasn’t really getting the ball. I think — at least, in terms of team chemistry — he wasn’t an issue at all. He wasn’t a distraction at all, which speaks to the brilliance of Andy Reid. Andy Reid is talking to him in one-on-one settings about his role, the fact that his time is going to come and, ‘Hang in there. Hang in there.’ And Sammy believed, and low and behold, there he is — the hero of the AFC championship game and the Super Bowl.

“But I think there absolutely is that part in him that desires to be a number one. 100 percent. [A player] that desires to get the ball. In a sense, he still is that player that wants his 10 targets a game, that wants his. He believes he should be on that marquee next to Tyreek Hill, next to Travis Kelce. Patrick Mahomes. I think, even after the fact, after he realized, ‘Maybe I did take it too far’... with the darkness and thinking people are out to get to get him and being maybe a little too paranoid, there always is a little nugget of truth. And I do think that Sammy Watkins wants the ball more. He wants a bigger role, but I think that the place that it comes from is to win.”

For those who don’t listen to podcasts, read the article here.

John Dixon and I also discuss the Chiefs who are on Pro Football Focus’ Top 101 players of the decade, the Chiefs and Saints’ draft wars — and break down the most important information we received from Travis Kelce, Frank Clark and Taco Charlton this week.

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