Watt certainly brought energy
J.J. Watt announced this past week that he will retire at the end of this season, and it’s certainly understandable. Watt is still productive, with 9½ sacks this season for the Cardinals, but he has lost 42 games in his career to back, groin, leg, pectoral, and shoulder injuries, and is 33 with a young family.
It’s easy to forget, given the injuries and mostly irrelevant teams he played on, that from 2012-18, there was no more disruptive force in the NFL than Watt. He racked up five All-Pro nods and three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards (2012, 2014, and 2015), and had a terrific comeback season in 2018 after losing most of two years to injury. A spot in Canton surely awaits him.
Two prevailing memories of covering Watt. One came in the 2012 season opener between the Dolphins and Texans. The Dolphins came into the game with a lot of excitement — the first game for rookie first-round pick Ryan Tannehill, and the first game for new head coach Joe Philbin, the former wiz offensive coordinator from the Packers. Watt, coming off a disappointing rookie season, single-handedly wrecked the game, knocking down three passes at the line of scrimmage, two of which were intercepted by the Texans in a 3010 romp. The performance earned him the nickname “J.J. Swat,” and he finished the season with 16 batted passes, still the most by a defensive lineman in NFL history.
The other memory is not a single memory — it’s how Watt did shockingly little against the Patriots in his career. In nine games (1-8 record), Watt had 29 tackles, a half-sack, 6½ run stuffs, 13 quarterback hits, 1 forced fumble, and 9 batted passes, but not for lack of trying. To me, Watt’s lack of production was the ultimate sign of respect from Bill Belichick, who put significant resources toward slowing down Watt.
“You’re not talking about a guy that takes a play off,” Belichick said in 2017. “You’ve got to deal with his length, his power, his quickness on every single play. He just wears guys down with effort and toughness. Then when you take the skill that he has and combine it all together, that puts him at a very — I mean, you’re talking about the best defensive player in the league for more than one year.”
Patriots fail to measure up
When considering the disappointment of the Patriots’ offense, one of the main culprits is on third down, where the Patriots rank 26th in the NFL at 34.9 percent. But their struggles on third down are really about their struggles on the first two downs.
The Patriots average 7.7 yards to go on third down, tied with the Jets and Broncos for longest in the NFL. The Patriots also lag in a stat called “successful plays” — defined as gaining at least 40 percent of the necessary yards on first down (for example, 4 yards on first and 10), and 50 percent of the remaining yards on second down. The Patriots are 27th on first down (success on 47.1 percent of plays) and 29th on second down (success on 49.8 percent of plays).
The Patriots need to gain more yards on first and second down because they aren’t dynamic enough to convert third and longs.
Extra points
The Broncos finally did the inevitable this past week, firing Nathaniel Hackett after a 4-11 start. Hackett joins an ignominious list of one-and-done coaches over the last decade: Urban Meyer (2021 Jaguars), Freddie Kitchens (2019 Browns), Steve Wilks (2018 Cardinals), Chip Kelly (2016 49ers), Jim Tomsula (2015 49ers), Rob Chudzinski (2013 Browns), Mike Mularkey (2012 Jaguars), and Hue Jackson (2011 Raiders) . . . New Broncos owner Greg Penner said general manager George Paton will keep his job and will be heavily involved in the coaching search, but the new coach will report to the owner, not the GM. That sounds like a dysfunctional setup that is destined to fail, or that Paton has had his power sapped and will report to the head coach, which isn’t uncommon . . . As for Russell Wilson, the Broncos surely are looking for outs in the seven-year, $296 million contract he signed in September. There is simply too much guaranteed money ($57 million over two years) and too much of a salary-cap disaster ($85 million in dead-cap money) for the Broncos to release Wilson this offseason, but they may be able to suck it up and do it in the spring of 2024 . . . When it comes to the Patriots, follow the yardage. They are 6-3 when winning the yardage margin (losses to the Ravens, Vikings, and Raiders) and 1-5 when they lose the yardage margin (win against the Jets) . . . Count on Dan Snyder to alienate some of the most iconic players in his team’s history. The Commanders are set to unveil a hog as their mascot, a nod to the team’s famous offensive line in the 1980s. But five of the era’s beloved players — John Riggins, Joe Jacoby, Mark May, Fred Dean, and Rick “Doc” Walker — are seeking a trademark for the term “Hogs” and are threatening legal action. “The Commanders are using the original HOGS brand for commercial purposes with NO compensation to the men who’s blood & sweat equity built the original HOGS brand 40 years ago,” they said in a statement . . . The 49ers’ Brock Purdy is looking to become the fifth quarterback to win at least his first four NFL starts, joining Ben Roethlisberger (2004), Phil Simms (1979), Mike Kruczek (1976), and Virgil Carter (1968) . . . An underrated story line from last Saturday: two contenders lost starting offensive tackles. The Bengals lost left tackle La’el Collins to a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee, and the Eagles lost right tackle Lane Johnson to torn abdominal muscles, though he is delaying surgery and hopes to play through the injury in the playoffs. The Eagles have lost 11 of their last 14 games without Johnson . . . Congrats to Titans quarterback Josh Dobbs, who threw his first career touchdown pass on Thursday night in his sixth NFL season, on his sixth team . . . Through 15 weeks and one game, there are 11 teams with a positive scoring differential, and 21 teams with a negative differential. If the NFL hadn’t expanded the playoffs to seven teams, all of the current AFC wild-card participants would be eliminated, and the only AFC playoff battle remaining would be for the South title between the Jaguars and Titans.