JJ Watt: All-Pro DE

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by 2012Champs

Lets not get waaayyy ahead of ourselves here. It was one game and wouldnt be enough for league MVP

after a win and way too much bourbon, sure it would.

[utahmark]

Originally Posted by eriadoc

Watt won't win MVP, DPOY, or even the weekly award. You know why? When they showed the highlights for the Texans game on NFLN, they showed the two tips for INTs and mentioned Cushing and Kareem Jackson. Not one mention of Watt, nor did they show his sacks. To the casual observer outside Houston, Watt doesn't exist. And it's a crying shame because every other player on defense yesterday was not performing to Watt's level until he kickstarted things. The man is a beast, a motivator, and the catalyst that gets things rolling for that defense.

Not. One. Mention.

Peter King noticed:

3. Houston (1-0). Does J.J. Watt have a big impact every game he plays, or is that just my imagination? Another 1.5 sacks and three passes deflected against Miami. Incredible for a 290-pound, 3-4 defensive end.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz265C7ERrT

[RunninRaven]

If JJ Watt's career path continues as it is now, I could see him changing the 3-4 DE position (and maybe DE/DT positions in general). Teams will have more drills teaching the timing of batting passes, will game plan around getting guys in position. It will become a point of emphasis league-wide whereas many teams probably don't focus on it much today. But seeing how disruptive it can be when you have a guy that does it well...I could see it changing how teams operate.

And that's awesome.

[DX-TEX]

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/blog/ey...any-good-teams

Could J.J. Watt be a sleeper for DPOY? Houston beat up on substantially lesser competition, but they were dominant in all facets after a sluggish start.

[False Start]

I didnt think it was possible, JJ has surpassed Cush as my favorite player on D.

[Texecutioner]

Watt is starting to remind me of a certain DE, and his name is Jared Allen. Loving having a guy like this.

And by the way, for all you Mario Williams junkies who swore by that lazy ass all those years, what game in Texans history did Mario ever have that kind of impact?? Watt is the real deal of what Mario Williams was supposed to be. This is the guy that we've been needing all of these years. Mario will sulk in Buffalo. Watt for defensive player of the year!

[False Start]

Originally Posted by Texecutioner

Watt is starting to remind me of a certain DE, and his name is Jared Allen. Loving having a guy like this.

I can see that. I think he can be the Texans version of Ray Childress.

[Texecutioner]

Originally Posted by False Start

I can see that. I think he can be the Texans version of Ray Childress.

The Next Ray Childress in Houston?? I'm liking the sound of that.

[False Start]

Originally Posted by Texecutioner

The Next Ray Childress in Houston?? I'm liking the sound of that.

Me too. I think Watt can be even better than Childress.

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by jjjezebel

If anyone can get me a .gif of that little head shake/finger wag he did after knocking that ball away, I would love you forever and ever. I just want to watch that on an endless loop, it was so adorable.

A long fast one, and a short slow one, and a long slow one. Plus, I figured out how to convert MKV files to MP4! Yay for me!

[dream_team]

Originally Posted by False Start

I can see that. I think he can be the Texans version of Ray Childress.

Yes. I see his game more like Childress than Allen.

[Maddict5]

Originally Posted by Texecutioner

Watt is starting to remind me of a certain DE, and his name is Jared Allen. Loving having a guy like this.

And by the way, for all you Mario Williams junkies who swore by that lazy ass all those years, what game in Texans history did Mario ever have that kind of impact?? Watt is the real deal of what Mario Williams was supposed to be. This is the guy that we've been needing all of these years. Mario will sulk in Buffalo. Watt for defensive player of the year!

im by no means a mario junkie but he did have games where he set the tone too... off the top of my head- steelers last yr, colts opening day 2 yrs ago, that broncos tnf etc. i agree they werent nearly frequent enough but he did occasionally have them

[GlassHalfFull]

@Dutch, great job with the gifs. I looked and looked for a gif of Mutombo's finger wag and couldn't find one. I think it would be really great to see a Mutombo in Rockets uniform finger wag gif side by side with a Watt finger wag gif.

[Dutchrudder]

Originally Posted by GlassHalfFull

@Dutch, great job with the gifs. I looked and looked for a gif of Mutombo's finger wag and couldn't find one. I think it would be really great to see a Mutombo in Rockets uniform finger wag gif side by side with a Watt finger wag gif.

Do you have a link to a youtube video of it? I can pull those down easily and make one.

[GlassHalfFull]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

Do you have a link to a youtube video of it? I can pull those down easily and make one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-BaV...eature=related

There are several in this clip

[CloakNNNdagger]

Originally Posted by Dutchrudder

Tannehill was notorious at A&M for staring down receivers while they moved through their routes. He telegraphs at least half his throws, and that leads to lots of tipped passes. It's also a rookie QB thing to do, so I wouldn't be surprised if the D-line gets less than 5 PDs next week.

In one of the other threads, not to take anything away from "Watt is a beast," I pointed out that Tannehill threw virtually all of his passes low in straight line without any attempt to high takeoff or arc over the Dline. Here is a post from a senior poster at Thephins.com:

Tannehill has an issue with keeping the ball at around shoulder level when he throws. If he has an open passing lane, there is not really an issue with this throwing motion (except for balls floating on him), but unfortunately, passing lanes are not always there.

Using a clock for reference, Tannehill began his throws from about the 9 o'clock position on just about EVERY throw I saw from him today. Now, on deeper throws, this is probably a more appropriate motion. Think about a mangonel catapult. Some of you might have seen them on those pumpkin toss contests on the Discovery channel (the mangonel is the one with the arm and bucket, not the sling and pouch, which is the trebuchet).

The problem with this motion, especially on shorter-to-intermediate passes, is that the ball moves to the horizontal (which most thrown balls will do, but more so in his case), resulting in some passes being thrown high (or float) on these shorter throws (think the throw to Charles Clay that was inadvertently caught by Fasano). It is also an inefficient motion from a physics standpoint, because it takes quite a bit of stored energy to make that motion. This motion does not really transfer to the projectile efficiently. So in essence, he has to use more energy to put a certain amount of velocity on the ball. And this is just an observation, but he had his arm iced up pretty good in one of the preseason games. Does not necessarily mean much, but he may be working harder than he should with this motion.

Forget the fact that defensive lineman can bat down the balls at the LOS, Tannehill had these issues at Texas A&M (just look at the footage). Against Carolina, he had 4 batted passes at the LOS. This is nothing new.

A more appropriate throwing motion with these tall lineman would be from about the level of the top of the head or higher. The best in the business is Peyton Manning.

Unfortunately, I am not sure that this is something that Tannehill can change so quickly. This is HIS natural throwing motion, and something he has probably done for a very long time. It could stem from a number of things as to why he uses this particular motion, but having smaller hands could be one of the natural reasons for not using a higher launch point. Controlling the ball from a higher launch point is much easier with larger hands. I cannot imagine that he has gone through high school and college without ONE coach pointing this out to him.

And going back to the throwing motion and not being able to change it with any real effectiveness. Tim Tebow worked an entire offseason and deliberately tried to switch it without much success. I am not so sure that we will see much change in the motion. Philbin mentioned that the lineman need to do a better job at keeping their hands on the D-lineman they are against. Maybe this point has been made during practices to even the playing field in light of Tannehill's throwing motion? Just speculation with this, though.

[Texecutioner]

Originally Posted by Maddict5

im by no means a mario junkie but he did have games where he set the tone too... off the top of my head- steelers last yr, colts opening day 2 yrs ago, that broncos tnf etc. i agree they werent nearly frequent enough but he did occasionally have them

I certainly remember you defending the guy every chance you could get and acted like people were crazy if they thought he needed to be criticized.

And Mario never had a game like this in his career. Watt caused 3 INT's and recorded a sack and half and a lot of pressure all game long and he is in his 2nd season.

[Rey]

Originally Posted by Maddict5

im by no means a mario junkie but he did have games where he set the tone too... off the top of my head- steelers last yr, colts opening day 2 yrs ago, that broncos tnf etc. i agree they werent nearly frequent enough but he did occasionally have them

Mario was a good player and I think would have been a dominant edge rusher in wades system.

Mario has the talent and all, but he's not the playmaker watt is. Watt plays faster. I know a lot of people don't buy into the fast twitch stuff, but watt is a fast twitch athlete, and Mario is not.

I would have loved to have seen them both in this defense all last year though.

If we could have stated completely healthy we'd have been scary good.

[CloakNNNdagger]

Texans learned Dolphins' snap count by watching HBO's "Hard Knocks"

2 hours ago

Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is credited with 1.5 sacks and two batted passes that turned into interceptions in the Texans' 30-10 win over the Miami Dolphins Sunday. Watt apparently should also be credited with figuring out the Dolphins' snap count, and he tells the NBC Sports Network's "Pro Football Talk" TV show that he learned it just by watching the Dolphins' training camp tidbits on the HBO series "Hard Knocks".

It's unexpected news that a defense can learn an opponent's snap count by watching a weekly series on HBO. It's even more unexpected news that a channel called the NBC Sports Network actually exists.

We don't have an actual confirming quote from Watt, but the report that the Texans' DE learned the Dolphins snap count from "Hard Knocks" is confirmed on the ProFootballTalk web site. "(Watt) was a little sheepish and guarded when explaining it to co-host Erik Kuselias," writes host and founder Mike Florio, "saying that the same information can be picked up from the preseason game broadcasts. But Watt said that it helped."

http://www.faniq.com/blog/Texans-lea...cks-Blog-54828

[badboy]

IIRC, Wade Phillips said when he was hired that all players would be taught to rush with arms up. I did not see that much before Wade.