The Green Bay Packers have continued their offseason objective of reaching long-term deals with their top receivers by signing Christian Watson to an extension.
The Packers announced Thursday they had signed Watson to an extension without disclosing terms, but a person with knowledge of the contract told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity that the 27-year-old receiver is getting a four-year, $110.5 million extension through 2030 with a $31 million signing bonus.
ESPN first reported the extension.
Watson becomes the second Packers receiver to get an extension this offseason. Jayden Reed agreed in April to a three-year extension that includes $50.25 million in new money and $20 million guaranteed.
“Grateful is an understatement ... so blessed,” Watson said in an Instagram story post.
Watson tore his right anterior cruciate ligament in Green Bay’s 2024 regular-season finale, but he came back last season to catch 35 passes for 611 yards and six touchdowns in 10 games. He tied for the team lead in touchdown catches and ranked second in yards receiving despite missing much of the season.
While recovering from his torn ACL, Watson signed a one-year, $13.25 million extension last fall that enabled his contract to run through 2026. Now he has a longer-term commitment.
Watson, Doubs and 2025 first-round pick Matthew Golden figure to lead a receiving unit that lost a couple of notable performers when Romeo Doubs signed with the New England Patriots and Dontayvion Wicks was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“It was definitely tough to see those guys go because they’re great friends of mine, great teammates,” Watson said this week. “This thing always keeps on moving. I definitely think they’ll be a lot more opportunities for the guys who are out there this year, myself included. Just got to embrace that and continue to make plays when our numbers are called.”
Watson, a 2022 second-round pick from North Dakota State, has been a quality deep threat for the Packers when available. Injuries have limited him to 48 games over his first four seasons.
He spoke this week about how much he should benefit from having a full offseason in which he’s feeling healthy rather than recovering from an injury.
“It makes a big difference between just finding a rhythm and building that confidence with the whole offense and personally just being able to work on my craft and get a feel for things,” Watson said. “It’s definitely a lot smoother of an offseason for me this year, being able to do everything.”
Watson has 133 catches for 2,264 yards — an average of 17 yards per reception — and 20 touchdowns. He also has run for two touchdowns.
Billy Howton and James Lofton are the only other players in Packers history to average at least 17 yards per catch while having at least 125 receptions in their first four seasons.
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.
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FILE - Green Bay Packers wide receiver Christian Watson looks on during the first half of an NFL football game against the Minnesota Vikings, Jan. 4, 2026 in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Stacy Bengs, File)
PARIS (AP) — Acclaimed Iranian French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, a prominent advocate for women's rights and author of “Persepolis,” has died at 56, the French presidency said Thursday.
“Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure of French culture and an artist devoted to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim,” the French presidency said in a statement.
President Emmanuel Macron and his wife “pay tribute to a remarkable artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable,” the statement said.
News broadcaster BFM TV and other French media reported Satrapi “died of sadness” a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish film producer and actor Mattias Ripa, according to a statement from people close to the artist.
The French Academy of Fine Arts, of which she was a member, expressed its deep sadness in a social media statement, paying tribute to “a passionate advocate for cinema and film education” who earlier this year created a foundation to help international students come to Paris to study film.
Satrapi is best known for her monochrome autobiographical comic book and film “Persepolis,” a coming-of-age tale set against the Islamic Revolution in her native Iran.
“Persepolis” won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and the César award for best adapted screenplay in 2008, in addition to being nominated for best animated feature at the 2008 Oscars.
The film, which details her life in Tehran as the willful daughter of intellectual Marxists, is a reminder that Iranians are just like everyone else, Satrapi told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview in Cannes.
“What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories," she said.
Iranian authorities at the time protested the movie’s inclusion at Cannes, sending a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran.
Satrapi was born on Nov. 22, 1969, in Rasht, Iran, but her parents sent her to Vienna in 1983 to finish her studies because of the extremism in their country following the 1979 Revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power.
But Satrapi, who found Austria hostile and who desperately missed her parents, returned to Iran in 1989 to attend Tehran University, where she earned a degree in visual communications.
By the time she graduated, Satrapi decided she finally was ready to leave Iran and accept the opportunities her parents had been so desperate to give her a decade before. In 1994, she moved to France. She studied in Strasbourg and later moved to Paris.
Her graphic novels also include “Broderies” (“Embroideries”) and “Poulet aux prunes” (“Chicken with plums”), which also was adapted into a film. As a filmmaker, she has directed several works including “La Bande des Jotas” (“The Gang of Jotas”) and “Radioactive” (“Madame Curie”), a biography about the Polish physicist Marie Curie.
Satrapi in 2023 coordinated the book “Femme, vie, liberté” (“Woman, Life, Freedom”) together with a group of artists and academics to illustrate the revolts that occurred in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 at the hands of the so-called “morality police.” The work denounces the repression and lack of human rights that Iranian society, especially women, suffers at the hands of the Iranian regime, the foundation said.
Satrapi was elected member of the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2024. She also was offered France's highest award, the Legion of Honor, that same year but declined it, arguing France was not doing enough to support Iranian people fighting for democracy.
“Supporting the women’s revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to photos or speeches,” she wrote in a January 2025 letter to French authorities. “When people are fighting for democracy, we should support them.”
In 2024, Satrapi won the Princess of Asturias Foundation award in Spain for communication and humanities. The organization said she was “an essential voice in the defense of human rights and freedom.” The judges described her as “a symbol of civic engagement led by women."
Satrapi's husband died in April 2025 at 53. On her Instagram page, only one message was left in a series of posts: “Because I have lost the love of my life.”
FILE - Iranian born director Marjane Satrapi, center, French actress Catherine Deneuve, right, and Deneuve's daughter Chiara Mastroianni arrive for the screening of the film "Persepolis," at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Wednesday, May 23, 2007. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE - Directors Marjane Satrapi, right, and Vincent Paronnaud pose following the awards ceremony at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Sunday, May 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
FILE - Director, illustrator and author Marjane Satrapi poses for photographers as she arrives to present the movie "La Bande des Jotas" at the 7th edition of the Rome International Film Festival in Rome, on Nov. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
