While T.J. Watt has been a very nice consolation prize, his older brother J.J. Watt is a player many would have liked to have seen play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Associated Press voters just robbed T.J. of (at least) his second Defensive Player of the Year Award. Older brother already won three before he even got into the league.
J.J. retired following the 2022 season and a Hall-worthy career, but he recently confessed that he remained open to suggestion. All three Watt brothers always maintained that playing together was a dream. And he considered, for a moment, the possibility of playing last year.
“Halfway through this last season, I definitely was monitoring the Steelers and Texans’ situations, but it never escalated to any sort of actual potential”, he said Wednesday on the Pat McAfee Show. Had Alex Highsmith gotten hurt, would he have signed, for example? He did say he stayed in shape just in case.
T.J. has been doing the media rounds as well and acknowledged he knew his brother’s thoughts. He also knew there was only one thing he could do that could possibly persuade him. “I was trying to win as much as possible. I knew that was going to be a big factor”, he said, via Fox News. “At the end of the day, all those business decisions are separate from that. He was staying ready just in case, and, obviously, it didn’t come to fruition”.
In other words, Watt wasn’t about to come out of retirement to play for the fun of it. He would either play for a winning team, a contender, or he would instead enjoy his Sunday strolls. And a lot fewer necessary ice baths.
“If it was something where I could bring something that would help propel somebody to a potential Super Bowl, where you fill in a need and take them to a new level, absolutely”, J.J. said regarding his “monitoring” of the Steelers.
Problem is, the Steelers didn’t even know they were going to the playoffs until the day after their final game. In other words, they weren’t exactly the powerhouse that Watt had in mind to coax him out of retirement.
It wasn’t all so bad. Pittsburgh had a 7-4 record at one point and remained in the running for the AFC’s top seed. That’s when things began to go off the rails. QB Kenny Pickett injured his ankle and that started a three-game losing streak. They clawed their way back to win their final three, but they were always a longshot.
There’s of course the money factor, too. Watt wasn’t going to come out of retirement for the veteran minimum. What would the Steelers have been willing to pay? Perhaps, as I mentioned earlier, if there were a significant injury it might have been different.
But J.J. Watt never played for the Steelers, and now never will. He roots for them because of his brother and that will have to be enough. T.J. will be there for his Hall of Fame induction, and J.J. will return the favor when the time comes.
