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J. J. Watt

J. J. Watt Unlikely To Return In 2016

September 29th, 2016 at 12:14pm CST by Zachary Links

Thanks to the new injured reserve rules, teams can bring one player back from IR without designating him for return ahead of time. Technically, the Texans will have this option with star J.J. Watt, but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be healthy enough for the team to take advantage. Any hope that Watt returns in 2016 is slim, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. On the plus side, the Texans believe he’ll be back in ’17 and there are no long-term concerns with Watt. J.J. Watt

Watt had back surgery over the summer and he was showing the effects of it through the first few weeks of the season. Typically one of the NFL’s most fearsome players, Watt ranked just 72nd among interior defenders in 2016, per Pro Football Focus. Last year, Watt finished with 76 tackles, 17.5 sacks, eight passes defended, and three forced fumbles, continuing to assert himself as an elite defensive lineman.

To take Watt’s place on the roster, the Texans signed old pal Antonio Smith this week. While Smith will provide some much-needed depth, the team is obviously worse off without Watt. The 2-1 Texans take on the 1-2 Titans at home this week.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Texans Expected To Place J.J. Watt On IR

September 28th, 2016 at 10:04am CST by Dallas Robinson

Texans star rusher J.J. Watt has re-injured his back and is expected to miss a significant amount of time, and could potentially be done for the year, tweets Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. The Texans officially placed Watt on IR Wednesday morning. Houston hopes he will return this season, but a source told Tom Pelissero of USA Today (Twitter link) that the odds are not good.J.J. Watt

[RELATED: Brian Cushing Tears ACL]

Losing one of the best — if not the best — player in the NFL for any amount of time will be devastating to Houston’s chances this season, and that may be an understatement. Watt underwent back surgery over the summer, and though he hasn’t missed any action, he hasn’t been his usual dominant self, as he’s ranked just 72nd among interior defenders in 2016, per Pro Football Focus.

Watt, 27, has never missed a regular season game in his five-year career. In each of the last four seasons, Watt has earned Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro selections, solidifying himself as one of the most terrifying defensive players in the league.

Over his firsrt five seasons in the league, Watt has averaged 74 tackles, 15 sacks, and nine pass defended per season. In 2015, he finished with 76 tackles, 17.5 sacks, eight passes defended, and three forced fumbles. As Roster Resource shows, the Texans’ defensive end group outside of Watt includes Jadeveon Clowney, Joel Heath, Devon Still, Christian Covington, and Brandon Dunn. If Watt misses significant time, they may want to pick up a DE.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Texans To Sign Antonio Smith

September 27th, 2016 at 8:46pm CST by Dallas Robinson

The Texans plan to sign defensive end Antonio Smith on Wednesday after placing J.J. Watt on injured reserve, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It will be a one-year deal, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk (Twitter link). Smith played for Houston 2009-13.Antonio Smith (Vertical)

[RELATED: Texans Likely To Place J.J. Watt On IR]

Smith, 35 next month, is an 12-year NFL veteran with more 170 appearances and 130 starts under his belt. In 2015, he played in all 16 games for the Super Bowl champion Broncos, posting 2.5 sacks in the process. During the course of his career, Smith has spent time with the Cardinals, Texans, Raiders, and most recently, Denver. He’ll factor into a Houston defensive end crew that contains Jadeveon Clowney, Joel Heath, Devon Still, Christian Covington, and Brandon Dunn.

Watt, meanwhile, will visit a specialist to learn if his back injury will require surgery or if it can heal on its own, tweets Mark Berman of FOX 26. Either way, Watt will be forced to miss a minimum of eight weeks before he can return from IR.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

AFC Notes: Watt, Maxwell, Raiders, Jaguars

September 7th, 2016 at 7:05pm CST by Sam Robinson

J.J. Watt worried whether or not he’d be healthy enough to return to football in the days following his groin surgery this winter, per Deepi Sidhu of HoustonTexans.com. The Texans‘ defensive end dynamo, however, said the rehab from his July back surgery didn’t faze him nearly as much.

“After the first surgery, there were some days there where I really, really questioned whether or not I would ever be able to play again,” Watt said. “Just some of the stuff we were dealing with from a rehab standpoint, just the way recovery was going early on…way back in January and February, there was a very low point there.

“[After the groin surgery] I was in a hotel room in Philadelphia for 10 days straight not being able to really walk or anything. With this this back surgery, after going through the first one…it was almost like, ‘screw it, let’s get it over with, let’s get through it.’ This one has almost been a fun challenge to overcome.”

Houston activated Watt from the Active/PUP list last week and is expected to deploy him for the Week 1 Bears matchup. Counting five playoff games, Watt has started 85 consecutive contests going into his sixth season.

Here’s more from around the league on the eve of Week 1.

  • Dolphins cornerback Byron Maxwell was blunt when asked about why he left the Seahawks in free agency in 2015 to join up with the Eagles, as James Walker of ESPN.com writes. “Cash flow, all day,” Maxwell said. “They were close. But I can’t make that back in my lifetime. So I had to go.” Philadelphia gave Maxwell a six-year, $63MM contract with a whopping $25MM guaranteed. However, after he struggled in his first season with Philly, he was shipped to the Dolphins and had his contract restructured. After being in the shadow of Richard Sherman with Seattle, Maxwell is now the No. 1 CB for the Dolphins.
  • If the Southern Nevada Tourism and Infrastructure Committee doesn’t vote to green-light sufficient funds for a Raiders stadium, the sides will move on, Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole tweets. This is viewed by Las Vegas and the Raiders as a one-shot deal, per Cole. The SNTIC has until Sept. 30 to come up with a financing plan, but the issue over how much public money will be contributed remains the sticking point. Developers are seeking $750MM in public contributions for the $1.9 billion stadium. With Oakland having made next to no progress on plans for a Raiders long-term site, the team could pivot back to Los Angeles, which may again have both the Chargers and Raiders interested after both had previously moved to other projects.
  • Dave Caldwell viewed his first three Jaguars teams as flawed to the point the team needed “perfect” efforts to be in a game late, Ryan O’Halloran of the Florida Times-Union writes. “Now we can overcome a bad play, a fumble, a backed-up situation, a deficit,” the fourth-year Jags GM said. “Offensively, we can score quickly and defensively, I think we can hold that fort down.” Jacksonville’s accumulated a 12-36 record during the first three seasons of the Caldwell/Gus Bradley regime.
  • After matching C.J. Anderson‘s offer sheet, extending Brandon Marshall through 2020 and avoiding a franchise tag season for Von Miller, the Broncos reached an agreement to extend Emmanuel Sanders through 2019.

Zach Links contributed to this report

Texans To Activate J.J. Watt

September 3rd, 2016 at 11:33am CST by Zachary Links

The Texans have decided against keeping Duane Brown on the PUP list to open the season, as Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweets. In related news, the Texans are expected to activate J.J. Watt, Aaron Wilson of The Houston Chronicle tweets. The defensive lineman has made a speedy recovery from surgery to repair a herniated disk. J.J. Watt

Watt, 27, has never missed a regular season game in his five-year career. It sounds like that streak will stay alive, at lesat for now. In each of the last four seasons, Watt has earned Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro selections, solidifying himself as one of the most terrifying defensive players in the league.

Last year, Brown graded out as the 16th best tackle in the NFL out of 77 qualified players. Brown earned a strong 86.0 grade for his pass blocking with a less impressive 70.4 score for run blocking. By leaving him off the PUP list, the Texans are leaving open the possibility that Brown may be ready before Week 7. However, he will not be in the lineup Week 1.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Texans’ J.J. Watt Could Play Week 1

August 25th, 2016 at 12:48pm CST by Zachary Links

Finally, a break for the Texans. Star defensive player J.J. Watt expects to practice next week, a source tells Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). That’s a potentially major development towards him playing in Week 1 against the Bears at home. J.J. Watt (vertical)

[RELATED: Latest On Texans’ Duane Brown]

Earlier this month, Texans head coach Bill O’Brien indicated that Watt could miss the first two games of the regular season. Apparently, he’s now ahead of schedule as he recovers from back surgery.

Watt, 27, has never missed a regular season game in his five-year career. In each of the last four seasons, Watt has earned Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro selections, solidifying himself as one of the most terrifying defensive players in the league.

Over his five seasons in the league, Watt has averaged 74 tackles, 15 sacks, and nine pass defended per season. In 2015, he finished with 76 tackles, 17.5 sacks, eight passes defended, and three forced fumbles. As Roster Resource shows, the Texans’ defensive end group outside of Watt includes Devon Still, Christian Covington, new addition Alex Carrington, and Brandon Dunn. If Watt misses significant time, they may want to pick up a DE.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Texans’ J.J. Watt Could Miss Games

August 19th, 2016 at 12:18pm CST by Zachary Links

J.J. Watt could miss the Texans’ first two regular season games, head coach Bill O’Brien tells ESPN.com’s Ed Werder (on Twitter). O’Brien says that he is encouraged by the progress being made by the defensive lineman, but it sounds like he’ll need some additional time to heal up. J.J. Watt

If Watt is out for Weeks 1 and 2, he’ll be absent for home contests against the Bears and Chiefs. After that, it’s a short week of rest for Houston as they have a Thursday night showdown with the Patriots in Foxborough, Mass. on Sept. 22.

Watt, 27, has never missed a regular season game in his five-year career. In each of the last four seasons, Watt has earned Pro Bowl and First-Team All-Pro selections, solidifying himself as one of the most terrifying defensive players in the league.

Over his five seasons in the league, Watt has averaged 74 tackles, 15 sacks, and nine pass defended per season. In 2015, he finished with 76 tackles, 17.5 sacks, eight passes defended, and three forced fumbles. As Roster Resource shows, the Texans’ defensive end group outside of Watt includes Devon Still, Christian Covington, new addition Alex Carrington, and Brandon Dunn. If Watt misses significant time, they may want to pick up a DE.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

J.J. Watt Undergoes Back Surgery

July 24th, 2016 at 9:34am CST by Ben Levine

SUNDAY, 9:34am: Mike Garafolo of NFL Network (video link) provides a slightly more pessimistic timeline for Watt’s return, suggesting that the star defensive end could be out of commission for 10 weeks. If that were to happen, of course, Watt would miss regular season games.

THURSDAY, 8:55pm: NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport hears that the surgery took place recently and the recovery time is expected to be six to eight weeks (Twitter link).

THURSDAY, 8:38pm: Texans defensive end J.J. Watt has undergone back surgery and will start camp on the physically unable to perform list, according to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). Fortunately, McClain notes that Watt should be ready for the team’s season opener against the Bears. On the flip side, ESPN.com’s Tania Ganguli tweets that we shouldn’t “take those first two games for granted.”

J.J. WattStill, there should be plenty of reason for optimism regarding the 27-year-old. McClain notes that Watt has never missed a regular season game, and although he sat out the 2012 preseason, he still managed to win that year’s Defensive Player of the Year award. Watt also had a number of injuries in 2015, including a broken hand and a sports hernia (an injury which eventually required surgery).

Since entering the league as a first-round pick in 2011, Watt has established himself as one of the league’s premier players. The defensive end has won the past two Defensive Player of the Year Awards, giving him three in his career, and he’s also been named to four Pro Bowls and four First-Team All-Pro teams. Over his five seasons in the league, Watt has averaged 74 tackles, 15 sacks, and nine pass defended per season. In 2015, he finished with 76 tackles, 17.5 sacks, eight passes defended, and three forced fumbles.

As RosterResource.com shows, the Texans are rather thin at defensive end. If Watt were to miss time during the regular season, the organization would surely want to add to the current grouping of Christian Covington, Devon Still, and Brandon Dunn.

Extra Points: Cousins, Broncos, Texans

July 10th, 2016 at 12:31pm CST by Rory Parks

Rich Tandler of CSNWashington.com is fully aware of the recent report indicating that Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins will not sign a long-term deal with Washington prior to the July 15 deadline, which means that he will play the 2016 season under the franchise tag. However, Tandler is not ruling out the possibility of a multi-year contract just yet. As he observes, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who reported that the Cousins-Redskins impasse would not be resolved this week, said more or less the same thing about the Demaryius Thomas negotiations last year, only to see Thomas sign a five-year contract with Denver right before the deadline.

Florio, though, is not the only one to report that Cousins would play out the 2016 season on his franchise tender. ESPN’s Adam Schefter, for instance, has said the same thing for at least a month. But as Tandler notes, deadlines drive deals, and both Cousins and the Redskins still have plenty of incentive to get a deal done in the next couple of days.

Now let’s take a look at a few more notes from around the league, beginning with another franchise-tagged player:

  • Jason Cole of Bleacher Report has a non-update update on Von Miller, tweeting that there is no news of any kind to pass along on the negotiations between the Broncos star and the club today. Mike Klis of 9News.com, though, reports that there is a reason for that lack of news. Klis says that the two parties are expected to think about where they are in negotiations today, but not necessarily talk about it. Talks are expected to resume tomorrow, as neither side wants to jeopardize the progress that has been made in recent days.
  • We heard several days ago that contract talks between the Broncos and wideout Emmanuel Sanders have been put on hold, and Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post opines that although Sanders deserves top dollar, he will probably have to leave Denver as a free agent after the 2016 season to find it. As Kiszla writes, the Broncos’ way of doing business doesn’t seem to be quite as generous now that Pat Bowlen is no longer in charge of day-to-day operations.
  • Andrew Mason of DenverBroncos.com looks at how the Broncos might go about replacing Malik Jackson, and Mason writes that the Broncos will likely turn to a committee approach, with Vance Walker at the head of the committee.
  • Texans superstar J.J. Watt‘s six-year, $100MM deal was “handled perfectly” in 2014, Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com writes. Fitzgerald goes on to explain how Houston got away with “highway robbery” in that contract, perhaps exploiting Watt’s desire to be a $100MM player to gain a favorable contractual structure. As such, Fitzgerald believes Watt’s deal is the best one on the Texans’ books, whereas new quarterback Brock Osweiler‘s much-ballyhooed contract is the worst.

AFC South Notes: Watt, Jaguars, Titans, Draft

April 6th, 2016 at 8:52am CST by Luke Adams

Will Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt retire sooner rather than later? It’s probably too early to make any assumptions about how many years the perennial All-Pro has left, but as James Palmer of the NFL Network tweets, Watt did tell SportsRadio 610 in Houston that he won’t be one of those players who attempts to extend his career as long as possible.

Here are several more items from out of the AFC South…

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