JJ Watt is the perfect fit for the Tennessee Titans

JJ Watt is free to sign with the Titans.

While free agency is still a month away, J.J. Watt’s release from the Houston Texans means that it is time to start talking about the Tennessee Titans making a signing right now.

Before we start talking about how obvious this move is, let’s get a few things settled first.

J.J. Watt is one of the biggest names in football, but everyone would probably concede that his best days are behind him. Having said that, his best days were some of the best days that any player has ever had, so that doesn’t mean that he isn’t a good player.

Everyone has been quick to jump out and defend the move by the Texans front office by saying that there was no way that Houston was going to be able to keep Watt on his current contract anyway and that a cut was inevitable.

I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I want to focus more on what comes next instead of how we got here. To that end, let’s look at why J.J. Watt should be champing at the bit to sign with the Tennessee Titans.

Why it makes sense for J.J. Watt

J.J. Watt is a big fan of Mike Vrabel and he has been for a while, even going back to when Watt advocated for Vrabel to get the DC job in Houston.

Who knows how much you can look into these kinds of things, but at this point, we have seen Watt on the record talking about how much he likes working with Vrabel and visual evidence that they seemed to be close in Houston (see below).

So on a personal level, it seems like these two would fit together.

But what about on the field? Well, I would imagine that a 32-year old J.J. Watt who just saw a dysfunctional franchise win four games, wants to make sure his new team has a few non-negotiable things.

First, I think he wants to win football games and I think he wants to be a leader on a defense that wins those games. Well, big check there because the Titans haven’t had a losing season since 2015 and they have obviously had a lot of success recently. In the past two years alone they won the AFC South after going 11-5 in 2020 and they went to the AFC Championship Game in 2019.

As for a leadership role, I think that position is still up for grabs after nearly every defender on the roster had a down year in 2020.

Another thing he probably wants is organizational stability, although he will probably settle for being away from Jack Easterby.

The Titans are about to have their 6th draft under GM Jon Robinson and it is going to be Mike Vrabel’s 4th season as HC. In the NFL, that is about as stable as it gets.

Also, I don’t know if he “needs” this, but whichever EDGEs play for the Tennessee Titans this year, are going to have a pretty easy schedule.

Six of their games are going to be against the Houston Texans (3rd worst pass protection in the NFL), Jacksonville Jaguars (7th worst pass protection in the NFL and losing their left tackle), and the Indianapolis Colts (3rd best pass protection but lost their QB1, QB2, LT1, LT2, RT2 this offseason).

Sprinkle in games against other bottom-10 offensive lines like the New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks, and the schedule looks very favorable.

Why it makes sense for the Titans

J.J. Watt only has 9 sacks over the last two seasons and you might be one of those people who says, “Clearly he is washed up, why would they overpay for a big name?” Well, let me tell you why he is worth whatever deal the Titans would pay.

While sacks are the easiest way to tell which players are effective pass rushers, I think that QB hits are almost as important.

People talk about QB hurries, but that stat is absolute nonsense because if you are close enough to a QB to “hurry him” but you don’t hit him, then either the QB is bad at his job and panicked or you weren’t actually hurrying him.

Over the last two years, only four of the EDGEs in the 2021 free agency class have more QB hits than Watt:

T-1. Carl Lawson (54)

T-1. Matt Judon (54)

3. Shaq Barrett (53)

4. Markus Golden (47)

5. J.J. Watt (38)

The Titans leading “QB hitter” over the last two years is Harold Landry with 30, so even though Landry has more sacks and TFLs than Watt over that time, a deeper look suggests that Watt is actually getting to the QB more often even if it happens to be right when he is letting go of the ball.

I have been outspoken on how the entire goal of this offseason should be to bring in people who can get to Trevor Lawrence and whichever new QBs come in for the Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts.

This is a chance for the Titans to make an impression on all of these quarterbacks and let them know that playing Tennessee takes a physical toll. So having someone like Watt that can punish the quarterback, would be huge.

The other benefit

Tennessee has two young, talented defenders in their front. Harold Landry is basically self-made and Jeffery Simmons is still learning just how strong he is. Both of these players could take a lot from a year or more of practicing and working out with J.J. Watt.

For Landry, he could work on his pass rush moves on the outside and learn how to properly use his length and bend to get around defenders while also developing a counter move.

Simmons could learn how to use his unbelievable power more efficiently as well as how to work on your secondary rush after the initial rush has been stymied.

Very few people have the aura of J.J. Watt and if his work ethic and hunger for getting better could rub off on the younger talent on this roster, it would have a ripple effect for years to come.