Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
One of the most disappointing fantasy football IDP performances from this past season ironically came from DE J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans. In 2012, Watt won the Defensive Player of the Year Award. He led the entire NFL with 20.5 sacks and was shockingly able to rack up 81 tackles. It was one of the best IDP performances of all-time.
However, Watt battled injuries throughout the 2013 season and simply didn’t look like the same player. The former Wisconsin star only registered 10.5 sacks this year, which tied him for 16th in the league. Not exactly the stat line you would expect from last year’s number one IDP option.
Despite his porous sack numbers, though, Watt still had another strong tackling season. The defensive end finished with 80 tackles and has shockingly racked up 161 hits over the last two years alone. He has the ability to rack up tackles like a linebacker when he is completely healthy. He has also racked up 32.5 sacks over his last 32 games to go along with 23 tipped passes.
The 24-year-old is still one of the best linemen in the game and he has an extremely promising IDP career in front of him. Watt likely won’t be the top defensive player taken off the board this fantasy season, but he should still warrant a very high draft pick next summer. Don’t be fooled by his small step back last year, because Watt is in store for a bounce back fantasy campaign in 2014.
Adam McGill is the Senior Fantasy Sports Writer at Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @adammcgill83, like him on Facebook, or add him to you networks on Google here or here.
