J.J. Watt scores the first offensive touchdown of his NFL career

It was the first offensive touchdown by a defensive player in Texans franchise history, but it's not a new idea. J.J. Watt has been pressing to play some snaps on offense for a while.

Doug Farrar | Sep 14, 2014

J.J. Watt scores the first offensive touchdown of his NFL career /

J.J. Watt is the NFL's best defensive player, and he probably has been for the last two seasons. That's why he was recently given a $100 million contract extension, and he appears to be worth every penny -- at least, so far. In the Texans' season-opening win against the Redskins, Watt had three tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, five quarterback hits, a fumble recovery and a blocked PAT. And it's totally foreseeable that he'll maintain this ridiculous level of play all season.

• FARRAR: Making the case for Watt as NFL MVP

That's par for the course. But what was unusual in Houston's game against the Oakland Raiders was the way in which Watt contributed. With 9:37 left in the first quarter, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a one-yard touchdown pass to ... J.J. Watt.

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It's the first offensive touchdown by a defensive player in Texans franchise history, but it's not a new idea. Watt has been pressing to play some snaps on offense for a while.

“It's just about being an athlete," Watt said in August 2013. "I have fun, catching balls is fun, just doing whatever you can to be an athlete, working on hand-eye coordination, and the little things. It never hurts to be able to catch a football.

“I've been lobbying since Day 1. It hasn't worked yet, so I don't think it's going to work anytime soon but it's his team."

That was back when Gary Kubiak was the head coach, and it didn't play out, though Kubiak noted that Watt could probably do whatever he wanted on a football field. New head coach Bill O'Brien, evidently, has no such issues with giving his best player more opportunities to make plays.

Published Sep 14, 2014

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.