Burnley's James Trafford Could Help Bengals Land JJ Watt Amid Miracle Run

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Zachary Rainey | Last updated Feb 18, 2025 6:11 PM ET

Tuesday marked an important date on the NFL Calendar. Starting at 4 p.m. ET, teams were able to officially place a franchise tag on their players.

With the NFL Combine coming up, things are ramping back up. After the combine will come NFL Free Agency and then the NFL Draft.

That in mind, NFL rosters are going to have a new look to them as players start signing with new franchises, while others go back to their old teams.

This might sound crazy, but the Cincinnati Bengals might have a new teammate to line up across the formation from Trey Hendrickson. That player is none other than former Houston Texans pass-rusher J.J. Watt.

Okay, it's about as crazy as it sounds.

Watt is a co-owner of Burnley F.C. in the English Football League Championship. Back on Dec. 28, the team's goalkeeper James Trafford shot Watt a DM on Instagram.

He asked Watt if he would consider coming out of retirement to suit up for the Bengals.

Watt had some fun with his response.

"You don't allow a goal the rest of the season and it's a deal" Watt said.

Back in December, Burnley co-owner and former NFL star J.J. Watt joked he’d come out of retirement if goalkeeper James Trafford didn’t concede for the rest of the season.

Since then, Trafford has kept nine consecutive Championship clean sheets, 22 across season pic.twitter.com/AaEFR9S6hn
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) February 13, 2025

Well, in typical Angels in the Outfield fashion (shoutout if you get the reference), Trafford has 11 clean sheets (shutouts) since the exchange.

The streak almost came to an end on January 17, but Trafford prevailed by saving two penalty kicks late in the contest. As a result, Burnley has an unbeaten streak of 11 consecutive games.

The team currently sits in third place in the EFL Championship. If the team were to get a top-two finish in the league, they would automatically be up for promotion to the English Premier League, arguably the best league in the world. A third to sixth-place finish would put them in a tournament with those seeds, with the winning team also earning promotion.

While it's unlikely Watt would actually come out of retirement, especially to a team that plays against his brother T.J. Watt twice a year, it certainly wouldn't hurt if some Bengals fans pulled for Burnley the rest of the season on the off chance J.J. fulfills his word.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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