Former NFL Defensive Player of the Year and brother of Steelers OLB T.J., J.J. Watt may have retired after the 2022 NFL season, but he admitted on the Pat McAfee Show today that he monitored the Steelers’ situation last season while toying with the idea of a comeback. He also said he kept tabs on the Houston Texans, the team he suited up for in the first 10 seasons of his career.
“I absolutely am,” Watt said when asked if he was fully retired. “Halfway through this last season, I definitely was monitoring the Steelers and Texans’ situations, but it never escalated to any sort of actual potential.”
J.J. said that playing with T.J. would’ve been a dream come true, but coming to Pittsburgh wasn’t necessary because the Steelers were set with defensive linemen.
“It would’ve been an absolute dream come true, to play with my brother would’ve been great,” Watt said. “They were all set, they had great players, they were fine.”
He ultimately felt that he couldn’t do enough to help a team get over the hump and said he’s happy with how things turned out for him.
“It’s not as simple as that. I am very, very happy and pleased with the way things went,” Watt said. “If it was something where I could bring something that would help propel someone to a potential Super Bowl situation, fill in a need and something that could take them to a new level, absolutely. But just to do it would’ve been ridiculous.”
J.J. had been steadfast that he wasn’t coming back last season, so it’s interesting to now hear the perspective that there was at least a thought in his mind about coming back. The Steelers could’ve used defensive line help after DE Cameron Heyward went down in Week One, but they had younger players like DeMarvin Leal and Keeanu Benton that they looked to develop.
I don’t think it was a situation where the team turned down J.J., but rather him not thinking he was in the best shape to drastically help the Steelers and take them to that next level. He did say that watching T.J. get ready for a Thursday Night game against the Titans made him miss football for the first time, something he reiterated again with McAfee today, but that was the closest he had come to talking about a return to the game.
It’s not a surprise that the Steelers were one of the teams he wanted to play for because of T.J., and it also makes sense why he didn’t return. For a player like J.J., it’s only worth playing if you can do it at a high level, and coming back wouldn’t have been worth it if he didn’t feel like he could be a piece to help a team contend.
While it certainly would’ve been fun, J.J. probably wouldn’t have been enough to solely elevate the Steelers to do much better than they did. He can continue to enjoy retirement and watch his brother dominate for the Steelers.
