Houston Texans linebacker J.J. Watt has been looking forward to the Christmas day game against the Pittsburgh Steelers since the NFL Draft. After the Steelers picked his younger brother, T.J. Watt, in the first round, J.J. Watt has made it clear he is looking forward to going head-to-head with his little brother.
Christmas Day is gonna be fun @_TJWatt!
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) April 28, 2017
There is just one slight problem with this sibling rivalry though because both players play a defensive position, which means they would never actually be on the field at the same time.
OR WILL THEY?
Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler has already suggested he may have to prepare his team to face the Texans offense with J.J. Watt lining up somewhere on offense at some point. No, J.J. Watt isn’t making a full-time switch to tight end or fullback, and he is not going to be a full-time, two-way player. But J.J. Watt does want the opportunity to play some smashmouth football against his little brother, just as they have probably done for years in the backyard and on the playground.
“[J.J.] is hoping he can play fullback once or twice when we play them this year so he can try to run over his brother,” Butler said in an interview published on the Steelers’ website.
It would certainly not be a shock to see J.J. Watt get a chance to play some sort of limited role in Bill O’Brien’s playbook. Watt does have three career touchdown catches after all, and O’Brien is never one to back away from anything that could give his team an advantage. But he’s also not one that is going to take a risk he doesn’t have to, so the conditions for the game (and maybe the season) must be just right in order for O’Brien to dial up an offensive play for his star linebacker.
New Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson already has some good weapons at his disposal, but a Watson-Watt connection going up against another Watt on defense may just be too powerful to skip.
[ESPN]
