Every time I say ‘WATT WATCH’ on the air I feel like Brian Fantana:
THE MOOD IS TENSE!
Anyway, if you want to delve into unsubstantiated Twitter speculation, it sounds like JJ Watt has his next destination narrowed down to 3 teams: the Buffalo Bills, the Tennessee Titans, and your Green Bay Packer Football Club. We made the list! We made the list!
I guess all of these possible locations make sense. Green Bay is the hometown team with a realistic shot at the Super Bowl, Tennessee is a contender and he’d get to live in Nashville, and Buffalo is a contender where he would likely get wings for life and get to watch members of Bills Mafia throw each other through tables during pregame tailgate parties.
Now there are also reports, again, unsubstantiated, that are indicating that the best offer Watt has is between 15-16 million per year. SHEESH. Watt made $17.5 million last season in Houston, but I never really thought he’d get that close to that number with his next contract.
Clearly I’m not in the Packer boardrooms where they make decisions (even though I am an owner, #rude), so I have no actual idea what they think a fair price for Watt’s services would be. But I would be STUNNED if they came up with 15-16 million to pay Watt over the next 2-3 seasons. They cleared out cap space by cutting Wagner and Kirksey, they reworked Bakhtiari’s deal, they’ll rework Rodgers and Davante’s deals, but they would have to get REAL creative to make enough space to pay JJ that kind of coin. Given his age and injury history, I thought he’d be more in the 8-10, maybe $12 million per year range, which is something the Packers probably could work with. But my guess is that if that report is true, it’s probably not the Packers offering that deal.
Until next time, I’ll continue to man the wall for #WATTWATCH.
PS: I was listening to a Locked On Packers podcast the other day while I was struggling through a run, and an idea presented was that maybe the Packers should invest the money they are creating in Richard Sherman instead of Watt. As impactful as Watt would likely be when put together with Za’Darius, Kenny Clark, and Rashan Gary, I think a strong case could be made that corner is a MUCH bigger need. Like Watt, he’s in his early 30’s, and has had a few injury issues recently. But he was also the best corner in the league from 2012-2016. And he’s still making plays when he’s on the field. For most of his career, no one would throw to his side of the field. But with the current best corner in the league, Jaire Alexander, on the other side of the field, Sherman would probably be in a good position to make a lot of plays on the football. Not sure what the cost difference would be, and obviously Richard Sherman wouldn’t have the nostalgia factor of JJ coming home, but might be an intriguing move.
