When news came down that the Texans were hiring DeMeco Ryans to be their next head coach, franchise legend J.J. Watt shared his excitement for the move, calling Ryans one of the best teammates and leaders he’d ever been around.
Ryans and Watt were teammates for only the 2011 season, but Ryans clearly left an impression.
Now that Watt has retired after 10 seasons with Houston and two years with Arizona, there was some speculation that Watt could join Ryans’ coaching staff.
But Watt made it clear in an appearance on an episode of the Pardon My Take podcast that he won’t become a full-time coach anytime soon.
“[If Ryans asks], I’ll pop in and talk to the boys, and I’ll watch practice, and I’ll talk to them, but no, I have no interest in the hours and the time commitment and going to the Combine and going to the Senior Bowl and doing all these things,” Watt said, via Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle. “I do not have interest in that.”
But Watt can see himself as a broadcaster because he doesn’t want to stray too far from football in retirement.
“I want to be around the game. I love it. Early in my career, I said I’d never [go into broadcasting], but the closer I got to the end, I realized it’s just too cool,” Watt said. “The NFL is awesome, and I want to be around it, but I don’t want to be around it in the capacity where I have to pour all my time and energy into it.”
Watt recorded 101.0 of his 114.5 career sacks with the Texans from 2011-2020. He won three AP defensive player of the year awards while with the franchise.
