Texans defensive end J.J. Watt has won the defensive player of the year award three times in the last four seasons. He may not have many chances left to add to that impressive total.
Then again, maybe he will.
Expanding on cryptic remarks recently made on the radio regarding how long he’ll play, Watt has provided more cryptic remarks to Peter King of TheMMQB.com regarding how long Watt will play.
“I have no idea when it’s going to be, when I’ll retire,” Watt said. “I’m not saying it’s not going to be two, three, four years. But I’m also not saying it’s going to be nine, 10, 11 years. I literally do not know the answer. What I do know is I’m going to continue to train my ass off. I’m going to continue to work to be the best player in the world, and whenever that doesn’t sound fun to me anymore, that’s when it’s over.”
Watt also addressed how close he came to not being able to play in 2015, due to a series of groin injuries that resulted in the muscle being torn off the bone.
“It was very serious,” Watt said. “Obviously it required a ton of reconstructive surgery. I was never not going to play in the playoff game [versus the Chiefs]. That would never happen. Obviously, they held me out late in the game. But I doubt I would have been able to play past that game. That’s when I tore the final one off the bone.”
Watt said there were five tears in all, and that the quintet of injuries “started to unravel as the season went on.” He nevertheless kept going.
“I played because you have other muscles that compensate, you fight through some excruciating pain, you have very good doctors, and you just grind through it, that’s all,” Watt said. “Because if I can physically step on the field and play, I’m going to. That’s just the way it is.”
The injuries and their progressive severity make the decision in the playoff game against the Chief to put him on the field as a Wildcat quarterback even more strange in hindsight.
With Watt creating a wide range of potential outcomes for the duration of his career, there should be nothing strange about the ultimate timing of his decision to walk away. Until he does, and as long as he keeps providing cryptic responses regarding how long he’ll play, the Wisconsin native who will play at Lambeau Field for the first time in his career this season will eventually be compared to the should-I-stay-or-should-I-go? quarterback who once played there on a regular basis.