Tom Brady faced dozens of elite defensive players who tried to slow him down.
But very few of them had his number.
And J.J. Watt revealed the one thing that drove him up the wall about Tom Brady.
J.J. Watt was frustrated squaring off with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick
Former Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt was one of the most feared pass rushers in the NFL at the peak of his career.
He won the Associated Press (AP) award for NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times during his first five seasons in the league.
And two of those years he recorded more than 20 sacks.
There was one team that frustrated Watt the most despite the dominance he had during his NFL career.
He said that the New England Patriots when Bill Belichick was the head coach and Tom Brady was the quarterback was a brutal matchup because no matter what scheme they threw at them it did not work.
Watt told veteran sportscaster Jim Gray on Let’s Go! Podcast that Brady was a master at dissecting defenses.
“It’s really frustrating, especially when you’re going against a mind like coach [Belichick] and a quarterback like Tom because you can do whatever you want on our side — we’ll try and disguise things all week long,” Watt explained.
No matter how they tried to disguise their looks Brady saw through it.
“We’re like, ‘All right, we’re gonna throw them this two-high and then rotate down to a single-high look.’ You do it and you think you’re brilliant,” Watt recalled. “It’s like that little kid who thinks they’re fooling their parents and then at the last second their parents are like, ‘No, I know exactly what you’re doing.’”
Fast but not fast enough to bring down Brady
Brady was never the most athletic quarterback, but he had a good feel for the pocket and quick decision-making.
Watt said that the former Patriots quarterback got the ball out quickly before the pass rush could make it home.
“Tom just comes up, he makes a check, he knows exactly where he wants to go to the ball and then fires it over there,” Watt said. “And all you did all week is for nothing. And it’s frustrating and it’s so annoying, and then from my perspective as the defensive end, coach throws a chip my way, so I’ve gotta beat the tackle, I’ve gotta beat the chip.”
Brady made a career out of quick passes to running backs or shifty wide receivers like Wes Welker, Troy Brown, and Julian Edelman.
“Lucky for me, I happen to beat them both on one play and guess what?” Watt stated. “Oh, Tom threw the ball in 1.7 seconds, so I couldn’t get there anyway. So, I had my best pass-rush of the day and it was all for naught, and that is the most frustrating part of all. And that’s what they did so well, is they just always knew how to negate the best player on the defense.”
Watt went 2-6 against the Patriots during his career with the Texans.
He called Belichick and Brady “two of the best to ever do it.”
J.J. Watt joins a lengthy list of elite defensive players who were frustrated playing the Patriots.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
