J.J. Watt completed a legendary 11-season career at the end of the 2022 season with the Arizona Cardinals. The 11th overall pick of the 2011 NFL Draft Class has recently revealed the team he would have signed with for the 2021 NFL season had he not chosen to take his talents to the desert.
J.J. Watt Reveals He Wanted To Sign With Green Bay in 2021
And it should come as no surprise that J.J. Watt considered the Packers. The Watt family–of which brother T.J., who is a defensive powerhouse in his own right, remains in the league–all hail from Wisconsin. The connection runs deep enough that all three brothers spent time playing college ball for the Badgers.
Speaking to TalkSport last week, the eldest Watt brother would recall his thought process after having hit the Free Agency market for the first time in his career following a tumultuous 2020 campaign in Houston:
“I loved being in Houston. The people were unbelievable to me, it was great,” Watt told TalkSport. “I grew up in Wisconsin and I grew up in Green Bay. The Packers, have a little bit of a different relationship with their fans because they’re a community-owned team, it’s a small town, so that’s one that always would have been really cool.”
J.J. Watt Enjoyed A Legendary Career
Regardless of where J.J. Watt may or may not have wound up after the 2020 season, he still put together an all-time great run for the Texans. From day one, Watt instantly became a feared presence on Houston’s defense, including his sophomore season explosion where he racked up an eye-popping 20.5 sacks on his way to Defensive Player of the Year.
Watt would win the award twice more, in 2014 and 2015, and remained a force in the NFL all the way to his retirement. While he had, and may still consider a comeback attempt, it remains equally as likely that Watt will remain in his current analyst role with CBS.
Make no mistake about it, Watt will almost certainly be inducted into the Hall-of-Fame by the time this decade ends.
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