JJ Watt In A Fight To Preserve His Longevity

Defensive end JJ Watt is adjusting to playing with a new team this offseason, as well as a new body.

The Arizona Cardinals’ flagship free agency signing is struggling to learn how to be economical with his physicality. 

The three-time Defensive Player of the Year has traditionally been an all-action player who trains as hard as he plays.

At 31, and with an injury-plagued last few years, JJ Watt has to learn to slow down and preserve himself. 

Want $250 to bet on NFL futures?

Sign up now!

JJ Watt had 69 sacks in 64 games from 2012 – 2015. However, back issues, torn abductors, a tibial plateau fracture, a knee strain and a pectoral tear hit him one after the other.

As a result, he played eight or fewer games from 2015 – 2019. In spite of this, he still played 91% of the Texans’ defensive snaps last year.

“Every offseason, there has been trainers and doctors telling you, ‘Hey, you have to be conservative here, you have to take it easy here; you can’t do this, you can’t do that; you can only do this, you can only do that,’ ” Watt said. 

“It gets to a point where, yes, I can go out there and play, but if I can’t train the way I need to train and practice the way I need to practice, then I’m not going to be the player I need to be.”

Read: Cam Newton Claims Bill Belichick Hasn’t Told Him Who’ll Start For Patriots

In the age of sports science and mind boggling athletic longevity, there is another way to go. In Arizona, JJ Watt has a guy in defensive line coach Brentson Bucknner who knows who to preserve his career for him.

“I’ve told him, ‘You’ve got capable young guys, so let them eat some of the snaps,’ ” Buckner said. “It’s super hard for him because he’s always had to be the man, but I’ve told him that he’s got to be able to trust me that every guy in our room is going to have a role, and one might be for a guy to take 10 snaps off J.J. in the run game. Or to take four or five rushes early, so in the fourth quarter of games and the fourth quarter of the season, you are fresh. I had the same talk with Jason Pierre-Paul and even Calais Campbell in their primes. My goal is to make you just as productive with the least amount of work on your body. Now you can play 15 years rather than be broken down at the end of Year 12.”