He’s baaack! Well, not completely. As J.J. Watt prepares for another NFL season, his ability to play a full season could be one of the reasons the Houston Texans compete for the AFC South Title.
The Texans missed Watt’s pass rushing skills. They also missed several other stars due to injury. After breaking his back and his leg and suffered other ailments, a healthy J.J. Watt means trouble for the rest of the division and the NFL.
Watt hopes he will be ready for the first game of the 2018 season.
“J.J. Watt stood at the podium during the first week of the Houston Texans’ organized team activities and said he is “doing really well” with his rehab and is “very pleased with the progress” he’s making,” Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com. “But as someone who has been dealt season-ending injuries for two straight years, Watt knows his health during the Texans’ offseason workouts or training camp doesn’t matter. It’s about whether he can be on the field for Week 1 and beyond.”
J.J. Watt was the 11th pick of 2011 NFL Draft. For Jacksonville Jaguars’ fans, he is the one that got away. The Jaguars took Blaine Gabbert one spot ahead of him, trading six spots with the Washington Redskins to grab their signal caller.
I’m sure there are other NFL teams that wished they had made a move to trade up for the 29-year-old Wisconsin star.
Watt was healthy entering 2017 and started to regain his previous form when he broke his left leg on a play during the Kansas City Chiefs’ opening drive in Week 5. Yet, another disappointment for the best defensive player in the game – when he is healthy.
“Though you would think he would be just as angry dealing with another season-ending injury — and he did say he had to go “through the hurt and heartbreak of missing another year” — Watt said he instead has learned he needs to just focus on what he can control,” Barshop added.
J. J. Watt said he can control only what he can control.
“Every single day I wake up, I do the rehab I’m allowed to do,” he explained. “I do the workouts I’m allowed to do. And I do them the best that I can. And I try to get as much better as I can each day and stack those days on top of each other.”
According to the story, Watt has played in eight total games the past two seasons. Before the 2016 injury, Watt said he had never — not in youth leagues, high school, college nor in his first five NFL seasons — missed a game.