Bills OC: Sammy Watkins ‘a guy we’ve got to get the ball to a whole bunch’
By Mike Dyce
The Buffalo Bills wanted wide receiver Sammy Watkins in the 2014 NFL Draft and traded up go get him. They’re so confident in him, that they traded away wide receiver Stevie Johnson the day after drafting Watkins.
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Bills offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett realizes that Watkins can fulfill a big role for the team and he wants to get Watkins the ball as often as possible.
“He’s a guy we’ve got to get the ball to a whole bunch,” Hackett said, via Buffalo News. “Good players just naturally start getting the ball, whether you call a play for them or not. I think it just shows here in practice. It might not necessarily be his number, but EJ (Manuel) just naturally finds him, throws it to him earlier, he goes up and catches it.”
Hackett said that quarterback EJ Manuel, heading into his second season in the league, has a better grasp of the offense and understands where to throw the bal.
“It’s so much more fun now,” Hackett said. “Not having him as a first-year guy where you sit there and say a word to him and he goes, ‘What is that? OK, that’s what it is, now I go run that.’ Now it comes natural to him, and he can go play football. He can understand what’s happening to him, he can understand where he should go with the ball. So his advancement is growing rapidly, just even in the first couple days of practice.”
With an improved Manuel, a healthy Spiller and Watkins, the Bills offense could have a break out season.