A few days ahead of the Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins was asked if he has considered trying to renegotiate his contract with the team this offseason. Watkins’ answer revealed that he isn’t even certain that he’ll play in the NFL next season.
“If it suits me and my family and [meets] my needs, for sure,” Watkins said Thursday. “But I’m really in a different space right now. I don’t know what I’m going to do. If we win it, I might chill out. I might sit out a year. You just never know.”
Watkins, 26, emphasized that he didn’t mean he was considering retirement.
“Not retiring, but I might just want to rest up and chill,” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t want to say I’m going to do something, but you never know. I might want to go somewhere else and create another Super Bowl team. So it’s just all about how I’m feeling. I’ve got to sit down with my family, my parents and grandparents and everybody and just see what I want to do.”
Watkins was drafted fourth overall by the Buffalo Bills in 2014, but after a down year in 2016 he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams. He spent only one season with them before signing in free agency with Kansas City, where he’s revitalized his career on an offense with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill.
Watkins is entering the last year of his contract with the Chiefs, and none of the $14 million he’s scheduled to earn is guaranteed money.
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It would be unusual for a player of Watkins’ caliber and age to opt to sit out a season with the intention of returning, though in an age of increased athlete empowerment it could be done. Watkins has said he’d rather retire than play for a losing team.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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