When the Green Bay Packers selected Christian Watson with the 34th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, they expected the 6-foot-4 wide receiver to soon become their star pass-catcher.
While Watson has been effective when healthy, recording 1,033 yards and 12 touchdowns across the past two seasons, he’s also missed 11 games with various injuries.
One of the biggest areas of concern for Watson has been a lingering hamstring injury that has impacted him in his first two seasons in the pros.
But Watson did something unique this past offseason in an effort to make his hamstring troubles a thing of the past.
Related: Will the Green Bay Packers make the playoffs?
Green Bay Packers had Christian Watson and Eric Stokes undergo high-tech testing
According to the Green Bay Packers, both Christian Watson and cornerback Eric Stokes met with specialists from Badger Athletic Performance after the 2023 season concluded to learn more about their hamstring setbacks.
This process involved Watson and Stokes undergoing a series of tests and body scans, where Watson learned his right leg had a little bit less strength than his left, causing more strain.
“Obviously when you’re trying to be equal in power, it obviously puts a lot more stress on the one that’s not as strong. That’s been the No. 1 thing for me because that leads to fatigue, as well. It’s a bad place to be, so obviously that’s been my No. 1 goal to just kind of eliminate that. “
Christian Watson on what he learned from hamstring study
Now Watson uses a special device called a NordBord to measure hamstring strength and imbalance. Now it’s one of the aspects he looks forward to most.
“We have a NordBord that tells us the power outputs and the asymmetry. Honestly, that’s my favorite part of the week, just going in there and getting to see that we’ve knocked off 4, 5, 6 percent of that asymmetry every week. Obviously, I still have a goal to get to. I want to be perfectly symmetrical, so I’ll continue to work on that.”
This comes after the NFL’s Scientific Advisory Board awarded a $4 million grant to medical researchers at UW-Madison back in 2021 to specifically study hamstring injury treatment and prevention techniques.
We’ll see whether the added focus on hamstring injury prevention works wonders for Watson, Stokes, and the rest of the Packers later this fall, but they’re feeling confident heading into camp.
