A day after T.J. Watt took to the airwaves to defend RB Jaylen Warren, repeatedly fined heavy amounts by the NFL this season, big brother J.J. Watt is doing the same. Making his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Wednesday, J.J. said the league is cracking down too harshly on guys like Warren for actions that don’t warrant the punishment. Watching the plays on McAfee’s show, Watt said you can’t even tell what Warren is doing wrong on the plays for which he is being fined.
“If we’re having to do that, maybe we shouldn’t be taking the guy’s entire paycheck,” Watt told the show. “He’s playing for free. He’s literally going out there and playing for free. Two weeks in a row.”
Twice this season, Warren has been fined over $48,000. His first major fine came in Week Two for lowering his head at the end of this long catch-and-run against the Cleveland Browns. A hard-nosed player, Warren doesn’t have a “go out of bounds” mentality, and instead of getting blasted by the defensive back, he tried to initiate contact. Because he lowered his head into contact, the NFL fined him.
With an $870,000 base salary, Warren’s weekly game check is a little over $24,000 before taxes and other fees. In reality, he’s probably netting only half of that money. But even at his $24k, his fine amount essentially costs him two game checks. Warren told reporters yesterday he “won” his appeal, but the fine was only reduced from $48,556 to $39,000, hardly a savings, and still amounts to 1.6 times his weekly salary.
The second fine came in Week Seven for this pass-protection pickup on 310-pound defensive lineman Michael Hoecht. Despite being half the rusher’s size, Warren was penalized for leading his helmet into the block, essentially for being too aggressive against a defensive tackle he’s asked to block one-on-one.
Again, the fine was over $48,000 and will again cost him roughly two game checks.
Tuesday, T.J. Watt blasted the league over a system he said unfairly punishes guys like Warren.
“I think it’s extremely egregious the amount of money a guy like that’s being fined,” Watt told reporters “It’s ridiculous.”
For J.J. Watt, if the league is going to legislate that out, it needs to do the same for defenders who are risking their bodies on certain plays.
“Let’s talk about cut blocks. Let’s talk about a tight end coming across the formation, throwing his head at the knee of a player,” said Watt, now an NFL studio analyst got CBS. “Trying to wipe out a player. Perfectly legal according to the rulebook…but we’re going to take this guy’s whole paycheck because he tried to block a 300-pounder.”
It’s a point T.J. Watt made in his interview with reporters yesterday. Many tight ends cut block on split-zone action, tasked to take out the knees of the backside player. Watt sees that on a weekly basis and in the 2022 preseason finale against Detroit injured his knee on this type of block.
Watt would have knee surgery later in the year, though it’s unknown if it was related to this hit.
J.J. Watt went on to add that the league is moving towards a flag football model. One focused on points, big plays, and defenders who have a very limited strike zone.
“We are literally headed towards that [flag football] direction as a league,” he said.
The NFL has a decided interest in protecting the heads of every player and the league has made big strides from where it sat two decades ago (partially to avoid future lawsuits over concussions). The issue with Warren is less about him being fined but the disproportional amount he’s being fined relative to his income. While fine amounts are codified into the CBA, there must be a better system. What the NFL should do is make fines a certain percentage of a player’s weekly salary up to the max numbers they sit at today so star players making $14 million a year in base salary don’t get fined obscene amounts.
That way, players making the minimum like Warren won’t be robbed of a paycheck, though they’ll still have a financial punishment that will hopefully change the way they play the game. It’s a common-sense solution the NFL should adopt this offseason. But as we’ve seen before, the league can often be late to making the right changes.
