No ‘Fairy Tale’ Homecoming for Watt

J.J. Watt said on SiriusXM that he was interested in finishing his career with the Packers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – When the Houston Texans released J.J. Watt in February 2021, there was mutual interest between the future Hall of Famer and his home-state Green Bay Packers.

“There’s certainly a part of me that thought about that,” Watt, a guest on Adam Schein’s SiriusXM podcast “Rise and Schein,” said of finishing his career with the Packers.

“Sometimes things don’t materialize in the way” you want, he added.

"Sometimes things just don't happen the way fairy tales are supposed to happen." @AdamSchein asks @JJWatt if the Packers lack of interest in him prevented him from signing in Green Bay as a free agent in 2021.

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— Mad Dog Sports Radio (@MadDogRadio) May 10, 2023

A first-round pick by the Texans out of Wisconsin in 2011, Watt at the time was a five-time All-Pro with 101 sacks in 10 seasons. He was the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, when he led the NFL with 20.5 sacks and 39 tackles for losses, and 2015, when he led the league with 17.5 sacks and 29 tackles for losses.

After two injury-plagued seasons, Watt tallied 16 sacks in 2018. The Texans released him after seasons of four sacks in eight games in 2019 and five sacks in 16 games in 2020.

“I see a big, explosive, disruptive player that if given the opportunity will wreck the game,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said before the Packers faced the Texans in 2020. “There’s a reason he’s won the defensive MVP before, because he’s a damn good player. He’s one of the premier players in this league.”

Ultimately, with the Packers wrestling with cap issues coming out of the COVID pandemic, Watt signed with the Arizona Cardinals. He had just one sack in seven games in 2021 but finished his career with a bang by recording 12.5 sacks and 18 tackles for losses in 2022. He tallied his most sacks, quarterback hits and tackles for losses since 2018.

Watt, a native of Pewaukee, Wis., came back to Green Bay for the Packers-Texans joint practices in 2019.

“I don’t have a ton of emotional moments in my career, (but) that’s going to be an emotional one,” Watt said at the time of taking part in the Packers’ bike-riding tradition.

Speaking from the practice field, he said: “I don’t get overly emotional for too many things, and today was one of them. I literally have looked through these fences as a kid and watched practice, watched Brett Favre practice. I've seen the bike tradition, I've stood outside the gates by the players' lot trying to get autographs. For me, this is literally a dream I've had since I was a little kid. To be able to walk out on this practice field and play in the shadows of Lambeau Field, it was pretty special.”

The Packers in 2021 were coming off back-to-back appearances in the NFC Championship Game. Adding him to a defensive front featuring Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith and Rashan Gary might have put the Packers “over the top,” a source said at the time.

Alas, Watt finished his career with Arizona. Aaron Rodgers was among those who appeared in an emotional retirement video.

Said Watt to Schein: “Sometimes things just don’t happen the way that fairy tales are supposed to happen.”

Click here to listen to the full podcast.

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