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When JJ Watt’s time with the Houston Texans came to an end, the All-World defender had to make a tough choice about his NFL future.
At 32, his best days may have been behind him, but Watt still had considerable value to teams looking to make a run, having transitioned beautifully from one of the best edge rushers in the NFL to a top-tier interior rusher. For the right price, Watt could still be a premier piece for a defense with Super Bowl ambitions.
And yet, one such team, the Green Bay Packers, showed almost no interest in Watt’s services despite being his top choice in free agency, as the future Hall of Famer explained on the Pat McAfee Show.
“I wanted to play for the Packers in free agency. I wanted to go to Green Bay. They were not interested. That’s where I wanted to go. I told my agency, I don’t care what the number is. I don’t care how low it is. Tell me what it is so I can at least consider it. I said, I’m not saying there’s a guarantee to take it. But I said, if it’s two million, if it’s four million, whatever the number is, put it in front of me so that I can at least consider it against all these options. And they said, we can’t get a number,” Watt explained.
“This is my free, my real free agency. I said, we went, you go through the list of everything on what you want to do. What, where would you like to go? What kind of, what are you looking for? And I said, the ideal situation for me would be to go play for the Green Bay Packers. That’s where, I mean, I grew up. I watched Reggie White. That would be incredible. I said, I’ll take a significant, significant hometown discount to play there. And I said, but I just need to know what that looks like so I can at least consider it against all options. And I was not given a number to consider.”
J.J. Watt says he wanted to go home and play for the #Packers in 2021 as a FA and would’ve taken a $5M deal to do so, but the team had no interest and didn’t make an offer.
Watt instead signed with Arizona on a 2-year, $28M deal.
( @PatMcAfeeShow)pic.twitter.com/R3Q0bImZLS
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 17, 2025
So, how much could the Packers have locked up Watt for? Well, while hindsight is 20-20, it sure sounds like Watt’s hometown discount was better than anything available on Black Friday.
“I’m just, I can tell you with, without question, right now, I can tell you that $5 million would have gotten it done,” Watt declared.
Goodness, Watt on that 13-4 Packers team instead of the Arizona Cardinals? It’s safe to assume they might have gone further than the Divisional Round with that kind of weapon next to...
