ProFootballFocus seems to think so https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/01/01/analysis-notebook-dpoy-special/ J.J. Watt It made sense last season. Watt finished the year a hair shy of the all-time sack record, he batted down like a million passes, and he was making plays for everybody to see each and every week – plays that stuck out on the stat sheet. It helped that the Texans were winning games and he was the figurehead for that dominance. He ended the year breaking the PFF grading system becoming the first player to top 100 grading points in a season. This year the gaudy stats aren’t there, but would it surprise you to know that in PFF’s grading, a play by play measure of his performance, he actually topped his 2012 numbers? Take a look: Spoiler 2014-01-01_11-11-32This is how Watt stacks up over the past two seasons against the top five 3-4 DEs from the 2013 season. Campbell, Williams, Jordan and Richardson all had extremely strong years – Richardson’s good enough to likely hand him Defensive Rookie of the Year – but none is even playing the same game as Watt in either season. Last year was incredible, but his 2013 performance tops it by a clear ten grading points, the only thing that changed is a few statistics didn’t fall his way and the Texans stopped winning games. Sometimes when a guy plays on the line what he does won’t show up on the stat sheet at all. Doug Flutie said recently that running the ball is a waste of time, because ‘you need seven good blocks to run the football’. In a funny way the reverse can be true as well. One guy can’t mount a successful defense. No matter how dominant that player is, offenses can find a way to avoid him, even if they can’t neutralize him. Watt found that at times this season. In week 6 the Rams held Watt to his first game not graded in the green in the past two regular seasons, but when I looked at how they did it in that week’s Analysis Notebook I found they didn’t do anything special, just used a bit of common sense. When Watt was lined up on one side they ran to the other, when he was left 1 on 1 they made sure the ball was coming out quickly. Plenty of Houston defenders owe a lot of their defensive stops to Watt torpedoing the play in the backfield but not recording the stop himself. He has been a one-man wrecking ball all throughout the season but all too often it’s made little impact on the overall outcome. That is not a failing of his. What is perhaps most amazing about him is that he is a perfectly balanced player. He is no better rushing the passer than he is defending the run, because he uses the same skills and techniques to play both. Simply put he’s just too quick for most blockers to deal with, and any that are quick enough to handle him aren’t strong enough to contain him. If he plays inside he uses his swim move to just toss interior linemen aside and penetrate immediately. The Texans have used him more this season outside as a 4-3 DE where he has been equally as effective. He’s still plenty quick enough to play on the edge, but he also brings a power that offensive tackles just aren’t used to dealing with. Against the Titans we can see a great example of one such play. Watt lined up at defensive end in a four-man line as a traditional edge rusher. He hasn’t squeezed his alignment to play closer to his comfort zone, he is aligned exactly as if he was Michael Strahan, and from the resulting play nobody would know he wasn’t. Large Image: Spoiler Initially he threatened the outside shoulder of the offensive tackle, but then quickly switched his position so that he was initiating contact right into the tackle’s chest. From this point the tackle is in trouble, already rocked on his heels and expecting a bull rush to drive him back into the quarterback, but Watt adjusted to where Ryan Fitzpatrick was in the pocket, tossed his man to the side and leapt inside to take him to the ground just after the pass was gone. This won’t show up on a box score as a sack, but Watt had his arms outstretched closing to deck the quarterback just 1.7 seconds into this play. That combination of speed and power just doesn’t exist for most people. When tackles see a big body outside they’re expecting to have to deal with power, but not the speed that comes along with Watt. Whether it was inside or outside he did this all season long, posting a massive 84 total sacks, hits and hurries, second in the league behind Robert Quinn’s 91. TLDR: Watt is a beast and was even better this year
