J.J. Watt hilariously offers to play for Steelers in place of injured brother T.J.

A family member of T.J. Watt has a fun suggestion for the Steelers defense. So how’s this for a plan? Big brother J.J. Watt says he’ll step for his injured brother.

Yes, this really happened, the suggestion that is. But we’re nearly positive that the elder Watt was kidding. The joke started moments after Steelers coach Mike Tomlin confirmed what Pittsburgh fans had feared. T.J. Watt won’t play against the Bills on Sunday when the Steelers travel to Buffalo for the first round of the AFC playoffs.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter was one of many NFL reporters who posted the breaking news on Twitter. But J.J. Watt added another layer. He replied with a photoshopped image of T.J. Watt in uniform. But you can see J.J.’s face underneath the helmet. He also added, “think they’d notice?”

think they’d notice? pic.twitter.com/25E4aUfJKv

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) January 9, 2024

Of course, J.J. retired at the end of the 2022 season after playing a dozen years in the NFL for the Texans and then the Cardinals. And like his kid brother, he was a sack artist as well.

T.J. Watt was enjoying a dominant game against the Ravens last Sunday. The outside linebacker already had posted eight tackles, six of them solo, including two sacks of Baltimore quarterback Tyler “Snoop” Huntley. The pair of sacks gave him 19 for the season. Coincidentally, the only two players in NFL history with multiple seasons of at least 19 sacks are T.J. and J.J. The younger Watt left the game shortly after his second sack. Reports suggested he wanted to return. But doctors and the athletic trainers told him no.

T.J. Watt and Bengals standout Trey Hendrickson had been tied for the NFL lead in sacks coming into the final week of the regular season. Hendrickson notched half a sack in Cincinnati’s season finale against Cleveland. That means the Steelers star won the league sack crown for the third time in his career. No other player in league history has led the league in sacks three times. There’s also this caveat. The sack is a somewhat recent official stat. The NFL started maintaining the stat records in 1982.

Maybe the Steelers don’t need J.J. after all. Tomlin said there are other outsider linebackers the Steelers can lean on against the Bills.

“We’ve got depth at the position,” Tomlin told reporters. “That’s why we went out and thoughtfully acquired Markus Golden. That’s why we drafted Nick Herbig. We’re as deep at that position as we’ve been at some time. We’re comfortable with the quality of depth.”