NFL defensive player of the year J.J. Watt has consented to a two-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals, the group reported Monday.
Terms were not unveiled, however a source disclosed to ESPN’s Adam Schefter the arrangement is valued at $31 million and incorporates $23 million ensured.
Before the Cardinals declared the agreement, Watt broke the news by sharing a photo on Twitter.
Watt later showed he and his wife, Kealia, were making a trip to Arizona on Cardinals proprietor Michael Bidwill’s plane. He tweeted two photographs, one of himself presenting with Bidwill and the other of himself and his wife sitting in Bidwill’s plane.
“I’m excited to get started,” Watt said on the tarmac after the plane landed. “Very excited to get started, get to work, get to know the people of Arizona.”
Watt, 31, was delivered by the Houston Texans, who allowed his request on Feb. 12, finishing his 10-year run with the franchise.
After four days, Watt’s previous Texans teammate and current Cardinals wide recipient DeAndre Hopkins posted on Instagram a photograph of himself and Watt altered to be in a Cardinals uniform with the subtitle: “How about we finish what we started…”
Hopkins responded to Monday’s news by tweeting: “Life is acceptable in Arizona!”
Watt will rejoin with Vance Joseph, the Cardinals’ guarded organizer, who was the Texans’ protective backs mentor during Watt’s initial three seasons in Houston.
In Arizona, Watt will be matched with individual pass-rusher Chandler Jones, who drives the NFL in sacks since he was drafted in the first round in 2012 with 97. Second during that range is Watt with 95.5.
Watt’s expansion implied insignificant changes to the Cardinals’ chances for the 2021 season from Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill. Their chances to win the Super Bowl stay 40-1 and to win the NFC stay 20-1. Arizona’s chances to win the NFC West moved from 7-1 to 6-1, still the longest chances of the four groups in the division.
“The one thing I can promise you is I’m going to work my ass off every single day to make you proud,” Watt said. “Very proud to be a part of the ‘Bird Gang’ and the ‘Red Sea.'”
In 2020, Watt positioned fifteenth out of 119 qualified pass-rushers in pass surge win rate, as per ESPN Stats and Information research. He completed the season with five sacks, two constrained mishandles and a capture he returned for a score. He has been tormented with wounds as of late, having played 16 games in a season just twice since 2015.
After the Texans drafted Watt with the No. 11 pick in 2011, he turned into the substance of the establishment, winning three NFL Defensive Player of the Year grants from 2012 to ’15. Watt is one of three players to win that grant multiple times.
A five-time Pro Bowl selection and five-time first-group All-Pro, Watt was by a wide margin the most profitable pass-rusher in Texans history with 101 career sacks.
