This weekend, J.J. Watt will face the Houston Texans for the first time since his release following the 2020 season. However, it does not sound likely to be a very emotional occasion for him.
Watt, now with the Arizona Cardinals, said Thursday that he’ll still be reminded of his accomplishments with the Texans when he sees them line up across from him. However, that’s where the emotion will end due to the high roster turnover.
“There’s obviously something more to it,” Watt said, via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN. “I don’t think that it’s what people may think it is because, I mean, you look at the roster and you look at the guys that are there, I mean it’s been so massively turned over that there’s only a handful of guys that are even there from last year that I played with.
“So, it’s not like, I’m like, ‘Oh, I want to go and beat my old team’ or ‘Oh, I can’t wait to face this guy,’ because it’s not the same team. It’s not the same organization that I remember and that I was a part of.”
That turnover is a big reason why Watt sought his release after the 2020 season. There was some foreshadowing of that, too. Nobody, not even Texans fans, is going to hold his decision against him.
Watt has gotten off to a slow start statistically with the Cardinals, but he did collect his first sack of the season last week against Cleveland.
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