Kansas City Chiefs fans entered the bye week anxiously awaiting news about what the Chiefs would do at wide receiver after both Tyquan Thornton and Rashee Rice suffered injuries in their Week 4 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. Would they bring back Tyreek Hill? Would they trade for a big name? Speculation was running wild for days. Then news broke on Saturday that the Arizona Cardinals had agreed to trade Marvin Harrison Jr., but they weren't releasing his new team's name yet. Was this the addition KC fans were waiting for?
Unfortunately for Chiefs fans, Kansas City wasn't the destination for Harrison (although his steep price may actually make that a good thing). In fact, not only were the Chiefs not trading for a big name, but they instead opted to go with someone who already knew the KC offense. That familiar face wasn't Tyreek Hill; it was Justin Watson (cue the sad trombone sound effect). After dreaming of players like Hill, Harrison, or Brian Thomas Jr., picking up an unemployed 30-year-old receiver who's never been a regular starter is a bit of a letdown.
That being said, that doesn't mean Justin Watson can't be of some use to the Chiefs. Hopefully, Rashee Rice will be back sooner rather than later, and the Chiefs' real need is for someone who can help fill the deep-threat role that Tyquan Thornton was so effective in. Make no mistake, Watson will not be as explosive as Thornton, but there are similarities in their games.
Surprisingly similar career numbers
Let's start by looking at the career numbers of these two. Watson is four years older than Thornton and has played in a lot more games, but let's look at their 17-game averages over their careers.
Player | Rec. | Yards | Yds/Rec. | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Tyquan Thornton | 26 | 385 | 15.1 | 3 |
Justin Watson | 16 | 247 | 15 | 2 |
So Thornton has been a little more productive, but it's not a drastic difference, and their career yards-per-reception numbers are almost identical. Thornton was starting to improve in that area over the past two seasons in KC. He averaged 23.1 yards per reception last season and was averaging 19.9 yards per reception this year before getting hurt. Meanwhile, Watson averaged just 13.1 yards per reception in his last year in KC (2024), but that was a down year for the Chiefs throwing the ball deep in general.
Watson did average 21 yards per reception in 2022 and 17 yards per reception in 2023, when Mahomes was taking more deep shots than he did in 2024–2025 as the run game fell apart and defenses were able to keep their safeties back without any fear of the run game hurting them. Now, with Kenneth Walker running wild from week to week, those safeties have to come down to stop the run, leaving Mahomes more chances to take the top off the defense again.
Watson could help replace Thornton's deep-threat role
The other similarity between Thornton and Watson is that they are taller receivers who track and fight for the ball down the field pretty well (at least compared to other fast wideouts KC has used, like Xavier Worthy and Mecole Hardman). Both Thornton and Watson are listed at 6-foot-2, but Watson is actually about 20 pounds heavier than the lanky Thornton. If Watson still has his legs and can create any kind of separation on deep routes, he can still help the Chiefs on some deep throws.
Watson likely isn't going to be a one-for-one replacement for Thornton, and that's a good thing. Thornton was playing about 60% of the offensive snaps for the Chiefs this season, and Watson shouldn't get anywhere close to those numbers. What he can do is play 10–20 snaps per game and run some of those deep routes. Even if Mahomes only targets him a couple of times per game, that could be enough to keep the safeties guessing and force the defense to respect the deep ball. It would be great if somebody like Xavier Worthy could fix his down-the-field struggles and take some of those routes as well, but at least they have an insurance policy now if that doesn't happen.
The Chiefs could still be planning to add Tyreek Hill later this season when he gets closer to full health after his knee injury last season. In the meantime, Justin Watson gives them a veteran option who knows the system and has run many of the same routes that Thornton was running before getting hurt. It may not be an exciting addition, but even if Watson just makes an occasional play down the field, it will be worth the cheap addition to the roster.
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