Sammy Watkins says he’s “definitely” playing this week

After experiencing a setback during Sunday’s game, the wide receiver says his surgically repaired foot feels fine.

It’s no secret that Buffalo Bills wide receiver Sammy Watkins has had trouble staying healthy during his career. If you were to power rank the top-10 most injury prone players in the NFL, he’d be inching toward the top.

News came out yesterday morning that Watkins had experienced a setback with his surgically repaired left foot. Reports ranged from Watkins being out a week, all the way to him being shut down for the entire season. Now, he’s setting the record straight by saying he’s “definitely” going to play in Thursday night’s game against the New York Jets:

Watkins said after the game his foot felt tired, leading to a barrage of panic. He told the media on Monday, “I got it checked out and it’s fine.”

It seems that at this point, the third-year receiver out of Clemson will always be playing with a nick or bruise. It’s been a rarity to see him completely healthy at any point during his career and it’s definitely not going to happen this year.

Now Watkins will have to manage the pain in order to stay on the field, and the Bills desperately need him to be successful in this. The team has no established wide receivers after Watkins. Not one player on the roster boasts a season of 700 yards receiving, something that Watkins has easily surpassed in his first two years.

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The Bills lost in Week 1 against the Ravens and will now face a slew of fantastic defenses in the coming weeks (Jets, Cardinals and Patriots). Watkins knows he has to be on the field for his team to have any legitimate offensive threat outside of running back LeSean McCoy.

The success of the Bills this season may legitimately come down to how well Sammy Watkins can handle the pain in his foot.