We didn’t hear Houston superstar J. J. Watt’s name called very often in last night’s 13-6 win over the Bears, but as the announcers on NBC pointed out several times, he was being double (or even triple) teamed on every play.
I suppose that is the only way to deal with him, but it does provide openings for other members of Houston’s very capable defense.
Watt has been named several times this year as the best defensive player in the league – for the week, for the first half of the season, etc. He has collected a slew of nicknames, and heard hundreds of little girls scream his name when he went on stage at a Justin Bieber concert. He has achieved his childhood dream of being on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and yet interviews continue to reveal a nice, clean-cut, unassuming boy from small town Wisconsin.
Maybe that is because – by NFL standards – he works so cheap.
In a year in which three of the top five salaries in the league (see the list here) are going to defensive players, and former Texan defensive end Mario Williams will bank a cool $33.2 million, Watt is just in his second year of his Rookie contract.
On July 31, 2011, Watt was signed to a four-year contract with the Texans worth $11,237,000, which included a signing bonus of $6,672,000. By my math, that means that, barring a new contract, Watt will have to survive 2012 and the next couple years on just a little over a million dollars a year.
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