Texans defensive end J.J. Watt didn’t shed much light on his injury or his timetable, but he made one thing clear Wednesday — going on injured reserve will not prevent him from being J.J. Watt.
Watt posted a statement to social media, vowing to return and saying the kind of stuff he says a lot.
“Adversity sucks, your attitude toward it doesn’t have to. I will be back,” he wrote on Twitter, followed by a lengthier statement.
“I haven’t missed a game since my sophomore year of high school,” it read. “This won’t be fun, but it is necessary in order for me to return to 100 percent and play at the level that I am capable of playing at. Everybody deals with adversity in their lives, many much worse than what I’m going through.
“I have great people around me and I appreciate the thoughts and well wishes from all of you. I am looking forward to the fight back to the top and to the next time that I can step back on that field with my brothers to play the game that I love. You are the best fans in the world and I promise to continue to do everything in in my power to make you proud.”
Watt had played every game since entering the league, but that streak will end this week now that he’s been placed on I.R. It’s unclear at the moment whether he’ll be able to return this year, after the recurrence of back problems which precipitated surgery late in the offseason.
And while corny, his statement also speaks to the kind of work he’s put in to become one of the league’s top defensive players, with 76.0 sacks in 83 games (0.916 per game). To put his rate into context, all-time sack leader Bruce Smith averaged a sack every 0.716 games. Watt is already 69th on the all-time sack list.