HOUSTON – Houston Texans has agreed to part with defensive star JJ Watt after the player demanded his release.
“I sat down with the McNair family and demanded my release and we mutually agreed to separate at this time,” Watt said in a video posted on Twitter.
Watt was elected by the Texans in 2011 with option no. 11 and became the front of the franchise, winning three NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards between 2012 and 2015. Watt is one of three players to have won this award three times.
Watt is coming out of the second season of 16 matches in 2015, as he has since faced various end-of-season injuries.
In 2020, Watt ranked 15th out of 119 qualified cross-country runners in winning race crossings, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He ended the season with five sacks, two forced kicks and an interception that he returned for a touchdown.
Watt is by far the most productive passenger in Texan history, with 101 bags in his career. There have been only two players in the history of the team with more than 30 career bags (Whitney Mercilus with 54 and Mario Williams with 53) since the first season of the franchise, in 2002.
During the season, Watt made it clear that he was not interested in playing for a team that is in “rebuilding.”
“I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m not 10 years old in this league,” Watt said in November. “Personally, I think I have a few more in me. But you can’t either … I don’t want to rebuild. I’m looking for a championship and that’s what I want to do.”
When asked at the end of the season if he felt the Texans of 2021 would be in rebuilding mode, Watt said there were “so many unknown factors in that situation right now that you certainly can’t say that.”
Watt had one year left on the contract he signed in 2014. He owed $ 17.5 million in 2021, but his salary was not guaranteed. Now you are free to sign with another team.