J.J. Watt made his surprising return in the Houston Texans’ 22-19 overtime wild card thriller over the Buffalo Bills.
Watt, who tore his pectoral in Week 8 and had a subsequent surgery, did not play the full game. The defensive end played 61% of snaps (52) and started the game as a situational pass rusher. He racked up a sack and two quarterback hits despite his limited snaps.
Heading into Sunday’s divisional round bout with the Kansas City Chiefs, Watt isn’t sure about his plan for the game.
“I’m not sure. We’ll have a plan,” Watt said on Wednesday. “Just because I played one game doesn’t mean my pec magically healed. It’s still in basically the same situation it was in before this game, and obviously we played a little bit more in the last game than we expected to. So, it’s just a matter of making sure we have a good plan, sticking to the plan and doing what we need to do all week long to make sure it’s where it needs to be. But yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see.”
One can expect Watt to see a marginal increase in his snaps. He says he feels good after coming back — after a few days of management for swelling — and is ready to go for Sunday against the Chiefs.
“It feels good,” Watt said. “Obviously after not playing football for two months, then playing 50-plus plays, you’re going to be sore, you’re going to be a little beat up. It was a quick reminder of how difficult the game of football is when I woke up on Sunday morning. That extra day was nice to be able to rest and recover and get back to work now with the guys. I’m ready to go.”
Watt has an extra day of rehab. The Texans have an eight-day break between the Bills win and the game at Arrowhead Stadium. He was limited during Wednesday’s practice.