Packers Among Interested Teams In DL J.J. Watt

Bill Huber of SI.com, citing a league source, reports that the Packers are among the interested teams in free agent DL J.J. Watt.

Watt is from Wisconsin and would give Green Bay a formidable defensive front if he were to sign with the Packers. 

However, the Packers do have some cap issues to address, as they’re currently projected to be over the cap. Even so, Green Bay has already started to work on the issue by restructuring LT David Bakhtiari‘s contract in recent days. 

Shortly after the Texans released Watt, Ed Werder of ESPN reported that there are approximately twelve teams interested in Watt including the Steelers, Browns, Bills, and Titans.

One report from earlier mentioned that Watt is expected to take a few days before getting serious about finding his next team. 

It’s worth mentioning that signing him to a contract won’t impact a team’s 2022 compensatory picks, given that he was released this offseason

Watt, 31, is a former first-round pick of the Texans back in 2011. He was in the final year of his eight-year, $108.88 million contract that includes $51.8 million guaranteed.

Watt was owed a non-guaranteed base salary of $17.5 million in 2021. 

In 2020, Watt appeared in all 16 games for the Texans and recorded 52 tackles, five sacks, an interception, two forced fumbles, a recovery, a defensive touchdown, and seven passes defended.

We have him included in our Top 100 – 2021 Free Agents list.