Two of the top quarterbacks taken in the past two draft classes will be squaring off this weekend when the Houston Texans host the Pittsburgh Steelers. Kenny Pickett was the first quarterback off the board, 20th overall, last year by Pittsburgh, while C.J. Stroud was the second quarterback taken this year, second overall.
The latter is coming off his first career win, and overall has arguably looked better than the more experienced Pickett, even if the Steelers have a better record. But let’s be honest, the headline for this weekend is the induction of future first-ballot Hall of Famer J.J. Watt into the Texans’ Ring of Honor.
Surely intentionally, Houston timed it perfectly so that the Steelers would be on the schedule, meaning that Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt could be there. He spoke to the Texans’ beat writers yesterday about what it means to be present for the honoring of his big brother.
“It’s gonna be huge. I was just talking to a couple guys today about just how much the city has meant to him and how much they have shown him, how much they care about him”, he said, via video of the press conference provided by the team’s media relations department. “It’s just a statement of who my brother is and what he represented and what he still represents and how much the city means to him, and how much he means to the city.”
Still, having spent a decade there, T.J. isn’t entirely sure where his older brother’s loyalties lie this weekend, even if he has said previously that in retirement, J.J. is all in on Pittsburgh. “I don’t know who he’s rooting for or what he’s got going on in his corner, but at the end of the day, there is a game to be played”, T.J. told reporters.
The 11th-overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, J.J. Watt didn’t take too long establishing himself as one of the greatest defensive players in the history of football. While his rookie season was somewhat pedestrian in hindsight, he went on to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award three times over the next four seasons. He had two seasons with 20-plus sacks in that span and he remains the only player in history with multiple such seasons, at least among official statistics.
While J.J. deeply embedded himself in the Houston community during his decade there, he ultimately decided to leave toward the end of his career as the Texans were undergoing some rather ugly changes, and he wasn’t the only star player to exit around the same time.
But there was never any bad blood. It was just the circumstances of the moment that led to their premature divorce, as indicated by this very early induction into their Ring of Honor on virtually the earliest possible opportunity.
Still, we’ve got to ask, who will he be rooting for during the game, Houston or Pittsburgh?
