HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610) -- J.J. Watt's future with the Houston Texans beyond Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans is in the air.
The five-time first-team All-Pro and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year has no guarantees left on his contract.
Watt and the Texans' new regime will have to decide his place with the team going into Watt's 11th NFL season.
"There’s a whole lot of unknowns in that situation," Watt said Thursday when asked about his future with the Texans. "There’s a whole lot of unknowns, so we’ll see what happens. I mean, I don’t have any guarantees left in my contract, so something’s got to happen one way or another. We’ll see. We’ll see what happens. I’m not sure. There’s too many unknowns, but I’m looking forward to playing the game on Sunday and we’ll see what happens after that."
This has undoubtedly been a frustrating year for Watt. He will play in all 16 games this season after missing half of last season with a torn pectoral muscle. Watt started all 16 games for the Texans in 2018, which means he's been healthy two of the past three seasons, and even in 2019 he returned for the postseason run.
But 2020 fell flat immediately for the Texans, starting 0-4 and firing head coach-general manager Bill O'Brien after Week 4.
The Texans are only 4-7 since then, and while Watt is still productive, he did not get much help this season pressuring the quarterback.
Watt leads the Texans with five sacks and is tied for the most interceptions with one (Houston has only three INTs this season).
Last Sunday after losing to the Cincinnati Bengals at home, Watt delivered a passionate response to a question about how to get motivated for the final week of the season, when you seemingly have nothing to play for with 11 losses on the season.
It was a buzzworthy speech shared across the internet, with Watt telling about his appreciation for the fans who helped make him such a huge star.
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"There’s a lot of different characteristics about a team, and generally the teams that win have better characteristics than the teams that lose," Texans interim head coach Romeo Crennel said Monday when asked about Watt's frustration this season. "We’re a losing team so everything’s not perfect. We try to keep the focus, try to keep the guys together, try to keep them playing to the best of our ability. Sometimes it looks good, sometimes it doesn’t. I can understand J.J.’s frustration because he has been in this league and been a very good player in this league for a while. I’m frustrated because we’re not winning. That’s what everybody cares about in this business, is did you win or did you lose. When you’re losing, nobody is very happy.”
Watt signed a six-year, $100 million contract in 2014 and it expires after the 2021 season, when he's due $17.5 million in base salary. The salary is not guaranteed, and the Texans are likely to restructure Watt's contract.
The Houston Chronicle's Texans beat writer Aaron Wilson describes the situation best this way:
"The Texans can afford to carry Watt’s salary, but it would make more sense to restructure his contract by converting all or a portion of his pay into a signing bonus and adding years to the deal to lower his salary-cap figure. The Texans could also trade or cut Watt to unload his salary and create more room under the salary cap.
"Of course, all of that is predicated by whether the new regime wants Watt, 31, back and if so, at what price."