Few expected Super Bowl LIV winner Sammy Watkins to swap the NFL for the sidelines. Since being waived by the Packers in 2022, he hasn’t signed with another team. Instead, he’s now returning to football in a different role as a high school wide receivers coach.

“The Ocoee Knights Football Family is proud to welcome Coach Sammy Watkins as our new Wide Receivers Coach!” The Ocoee Knights IG page announced on June 24. “A dynamic playmaker and proven competitor at every level of football, Coach Watkins brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion for developing young athletes both on and off the field. His commitment to excellence and understanding of the wide receiver position will be an incredible asset to our program as we continue building a championship culture.”

Sammy Watkins is joining an Ocoee High School team that is looking to improve. The Knights finished the 2025 season with a 6-5 record and reached the FHSAA Class 7A playoffs before losing in the regional quarterfinals. Now, with Watkins as their wide receivers coach, the team hopes his experience as a former NFL and Clemson star will help its players improve and make the team stronger.

The Buffalo Bills picked him with the fourth overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. Then, he joined the Rams in 2017 and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020, with whom he won his first Super Bowl victory. During his nine NFL seasons, he caught 364 passes for 5,179 yards and 34 touchdowns.

Watkins also had an outstanding career at Clemson. In 2013, he set the school’s single-season record with 101 catches for 1,464 yards and 12 touchdowns, a record he still holds. Over three seasons at Clemson, he finished with 240 catches, 3,391 receiving yards, and 27 touchdowns, making him one of the best wide receivers in the program’s history.

That is the reason why Dabo Swinney considered taking him in as a coach. Before Watkins was inducted into Clemson’s Hall of Fame in 2024, head coach Dabo Swinney said they had talked about the idea of Watkins returning to the school as a coach in the future.

“We’re trying to get him to; we’ve talked about timing and all of that,” Swinney said. “His kids are athletes. He’s got some competitive athletes, and he’s got a lot going on there. But he does want to finish school at some point. So I’ve been trying to get him to come back and help us out and finish up. So we’ll see.”

However, his journey from college to the NFL to coaching was far from easy.

Sammy Watkins’ injury setbacks

Injuries made Sammy Watkins’ life tough. He started dealing with injuries even before he entered the NFL. While playing for Clemson in 2011, he injured his shoulder against Wake Forest and missed one game. In 2012, he hurt his right ankle during the Chick-fil-A Bowl against LSU and had to leave the game after getting injured on only the second play.

During his rookie season with the Bills, he bruised his ribs in a preseason game and also suffered a minor groin injury, but did not miss any games. In 2015, he suffered a glute strain during preseason and later a calf strain that caused him to miss two regular-season games.

Watkins’ biggest setback came in 2016 when he fractured his left foot during an offseason workout and needed surgery. The injury affected him for a long time. After joining the Kansas City Chiefs, his injury problems continued.

In 2018, he injured his right foot, missed games, returned briefly, then hurt the same foot again and missed the rest of the regular season before returning for the playoffs. In 2019, he suffered a shoulder injury and later injured his hamstring during practice, forcing him to miss another game.

Despite all of it, Watkins never gave up, and in his new journey, he will teach the same to all the high school kids who dream of being big one day.