FARGO — Add Christian Watson to the list of former North Dakota State football players who are making a more-than-good living in the NFL. The Green Bay Packers wide receiver signed a four-year $110 million contract extension that includes a $31.5 million bonus, according to multiple media reports.
Watson will be heading into his fifth season with the Packers after being taken in the second round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He had 133 career receptions averaging 17.0 yards per catch with 20 touchdowns.
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The large extension puts him in elite company of former Bison players who have done well after college. Quarterback Carson Wentz, the second overall pick in the 2016 draft, has made over $134 million in his career, according to Spotrac, a website that uses verified reports to track salaries of professional athletes. The outlet puts former NDSU quarterback Trey Lance at over $36 million for his career.
Since 2020, offensive linemen Dillon Radunz, Cody Mauch, Grey Zabel and Cordell Volson, have all to date made at least $5 million in their careers. Quarterback Easton Stick, who is heading into his eighth season recently signing with the Indianapolis Colts, is in the $8 million range.
For Watson, it represents what an under-recruited player can do with an FCS program. His only scholarship coming out of H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, Florida, was NDSU, and that was mainly because he was 6-foot-4 and fast.
“He could run since Day 1,” said former NDSU head coach Matt Entz in a 2021 Forum story. “But just being fast sometimes isn’t enough. We’ve all seen great track guys that play football, but he needed to be a really fast football player and I think he’s been able to do that in his time here.”
There was another element that contributed to Watson's progress at NDSU: maturity. Entz, in the story, said Watson needed "to get his ducks in a row."
Christian Watson rings.jpg
Former NDSU receiver Christian Watson shows off his four Football Championship Subdivision title rings at a Bison spring practice that he attended while in the NFL.
Mike McFeely / The Forum
“Just my maturity as a whole in understanding the need of playing at this high of a level,” Watson said in 2021. “I’ve just grown as a man, a player on and off the field and that’s helped me understand what it takes to be successful at this level. Everyone has their slips when they’re a young guy. Honestly, I’ve grown in all aspects of the game and as a human being and that is so much appreciated.”
His NDSU statistics grew accordingly. He redshirted in 2017 and had nine receptions as a redshirt freshman in 2018. That ballooned to 34 catches as a sophomore when he emerged in the 2019 FCS playoffs with big plays. He had 43 receptions and seven touchdowns in helping the Bison to a 2021 national championship.
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Watson overcame an ACL injury with the Packers suffered at the end of 2024 and opened last year on the injured reserve list.
“I’ve gone through a lot of adversity,” Watson told Packers.com. "Nothing like this but I feel like I was calloused for it a little bit and I had the right mentality going into it and it’s been keeping that the whole way through.”
He returned to play the final 10 games with 35 receptions averaging 17.5 yards per catch.
[ Jeff Kolpack](https://www.inforum.com/Jeff Kolpack)
By [Jeff Kolpack](https://www.inforum.com/Jeff Kolpack)
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough," "Covid Kids" and "They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel." He is also the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.