The last three years have been tough on Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt’s body.
Torn muscles, broken hand, broken leg, herniated spinal disk, knee surgery, and much much more have all had their part to play in the three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year playing in a total of eight games from 2016-17.
2018 marked a comeback year for the ages. Watt failed to miss a single game all season and racked up an AFC topping 16.0 sacks along the way. Moving forward, the Wisconsin native is wary of his injury history and has come up with a plan to adjust his schedule accordingly moving forward.
“We are managing it,” Watt told reporters Wednesday after practice. “I took the off day after the first two days. I take an off day basically every third day, is kind of how we’re trying to plan it. It’ll get mixed up here and there.”
Despite this scheduled workout structure, Watt isn’t looking to take it easy when he’s on the field. As far as he is concerned, if he’s lining up, he’s going 100%.
“When I’m practicing I want to practice, that’s basically what we’ve talked about,” said Watt. “I don’t want to be on a rep count during a practice, so instead of that I’ll take a practice off and I’ll go run or I’ll do rehab or whatever they want me to do. But, I love to play football. So, if I’m on the field I want to be on the field.”
For Watt, life on the field is about always looking to take your game to the next level, something a half-hearted workout wouldn’t exactly accommodate.
Said Watt: “I love being with the guys, I love practicing, I love getting better, I love working on the craft, I love whatever you can do to improve, I like that. So, we’ve decided, obviously, that it’s best we take days here and there, and so we take days here and there.”
Regardless of if he has to take the occasional day off, it is safe to say that Watt is back. Now that he has had a chance to shake all the rust off after two tumultuous years, imagine what he has in store for 2019.
