We’re so used to seeing J.J. Watt dominate football games for the Houston Texans. So far this season, he’s been relatively quiet.
Houston Texans’ star defensive lineman J.J. Watt has looked good this season, but has he really looked like his old self?
Watt played in only three games last season due to a season-ending back injury.
We’re so used to seeing Watt making freakish plays. So far through the first three weeks of the 2017 season, he hasn’t made any jaw dropping plays. His stats are just OK.
Should we be concerned about Watt? Will he ever dominate like he once did?
Watt said this week that he doesn’t care about stats. From the Houston Chronicle:
"“I think that stat-watching becomes very tricky,” Watt said. “Just because the numbers may not be there, whatever it may be, it’s not necessarily always reflective of exactly what’s happening. If I have to take on two guys or three guys for our guys to go get four forced fumbles in a game, I’ll do that all game long. I don’t care. If I end the year with zero sacks but we have 40 as a team and 20 forced fumbles, I’ll take that all day long.“Especially the older I get in my career… I don’t care about the stats, to be honest with you. All I want to do is win football games. But they will come. Like you said, the hits are there. They’re coming. But if teams are going to throw the whole house and the kitchen sink at me, we have some incredible players who are going to make great plays.”"
Watt makes some valid points.
Just this past week Pro Football Focus pointed out that Watt was their highest rated interior defensive lineman from week three. Now if you look at his stat line from last Sunday’s game against the Patriots, you would notice that it was just OK. So he must be doing something right.
No one can predict whether or not Watt will have great stats by the end of the season. But we do know that his presence alone will help free up guys like Whitney Mercilus and Jadeveon Clowney who can make a huge impact as well.
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Through the first three weeks of this season Mercilus and Clowney have a combined three sacks. Bernardrick McKinney has two sacks himself. That production can be attributed to the fact that opposing offenses have to account for Watt and often have to double team him.
Comment below and give us your thoughts on how Watt has played this season.