GREEN BAY, Wis. -- When Christian Watson practiced Monday, it had been 274 days since he tore the ACL in his right knee in the 2024 regular-season finale.
To the Green Bay Packers receiver, it might have felt like an eternity.
In ACL recovery terms, however, it was more like a flash.
Watson's return to practice marked the opening of a 21-day window during which he can practice without being added to the 53-man roster from the physically unable to perform list. Even if he takes the entire three weeks, he will still beat most ACL timelines. His return to practice occurred at the earliest possible time after missing the requisite four games.
No wonder he briefly entertained the possibility of playing Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals (4:35 p.m. ET, CBS).
"Honestly, my goal for coming back to play is whenever I feel like I've put in the work enough and I'm confident after getting the team reps, getting the live reps and there are no setbacks," Watson said Monday after doing only individual drills in the first practice after the Packers' bye week.
"I want to get back and have felt 100 percent and continue to feel 100 percent. That's my main thing. I'm not setting too much of a target date, this week or anything. It's really just as soon as I feel like I'm 100 percent and ready to go is when I'll play."
Christian Watson is back on the practice field 274 days after he tore the ACL in his right knee.
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) October 6, 2025
His 21-day PUP practice window begins now. The Packers have three weeks to activate him for play. pic.twitter.com/oDNwd0q09c
The previous two Packers players to return from ACL surgeries did not play for more than 10 months. Defensive end Rashan Gary tore his ACL on Nov. 6, 2022, and returned to practice 290 days later but did not play until the season opener, 308 days after his injury. Offensive lineman Elgton Jenkins tore his ACL on Nov. 21, 2021, and returned to practice 267 days later but did not play until Week 2 of 2022, 302 days after his injury.
"Honestly, going back to it, I probably would've waited another little bit," Jenkins said Monday. "But I just wanted to be out there with the team at that point. You've just got to go out there and do it; it's really just mental."
Watson said everything he did in practice Monday was a repeat of what he has been doing for more than a month in individual workouts; it was just that he finally did it during the structure of practice.
"One thing about this thing, too, and I told Christian, is just the confidence, like you have to hit the field like nothing has ever happened to you," Gary said. "That's the only way you're going to see if you're ready. Thank God I had the confidence, had a great team and I worked my butt off, and I was ready.
"From what I've seen with Christian, I've seen him cutting and I've seen his runs looking a lot faster, explosive -- I'm not going to tell him that yet -- but he's looking a lot faster, and I just can't wait to get him back on the field because we need him."
Since early in the process, the Packers have raved about Watson's progress through the rehab, saying he was ahead of schedule every step of the way. Last month, they signed Watson to a one-year, $11 million contract extension. Though it meant the Packers have Watson under contract through the 2026 season, it also gave him the peace of mind not to rush back.
Because the Packers activated Watson on a Monday, they could wait three more games -- until after the Oct. 26 game at Pittsburgh -- to allow him to practice without putting him on the roster. When told how long Gary and Jenkins practiced before they played, Watson said: "Everybody's different. Everybody's body is different, and the demands [of the position] are different. I've tried to not think about anybody in this situation."
However, Watson spent part of his offseason with Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs. They rehabbed and trained together in the Miami area under the watch of Dr. Sharif Tabbah. Diggs tore his ACL on Oct. 27 of last year and returned for the first training camp practice this summer -- 270 days after his injury -- and Tabbah called Diggs' recovery "historically fast."
If that's the case, then Watson wasn't far off from history himself.
"He was in a really good spot early on, in terms of how he was feeling, so I picked his brain about where he was," Watson said of Diggs. "I was training down where he was with Dr. [Tabbah] down in Miami. He's had a lot of success with guys coming back from ACL."
The Packers also opened the practice window of offensive lineman Jacob Monk, who is on injured reserve after suffering a hamstring injury during the preseason. Running back MarShawn Lloyd (hamstring), defensive end Collin Oliver (hamstring) and offensive lineman John Williams (back) did not have their IR practice windows opened yet.
Starting offensive linemen Aaron Banks (groin) and Zach Tom (oblique) also returned to practice after missing the Packers' most recent game, the Week 4 tie with the Cowboys. The two players not practicing Monday were defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (knee) and offensive tackle Anthony Belton (ankle).