The JJ Watt saga was one of the weirdest offseason stories so far. The legendary defensive end was released by the Houston Texans last month, continued posting on social media where fans speculated that every tweet was a clue to where he was going to sign.
JJ Watt to sign with Cardinals after the weirdest free agent saga
JJ Watt took a Peloton ride through rumorville and ended up in Arizona
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Then out of nowhere, he dropped that he’s signing with the Arizona Cardinals. Watt is signing a two-year deal worth $31 million and $23 million in guaranteed money.
Watt signing with Arizona is definitely some left-field randomness, but it’s nothing compared to what went down earlier in the day — when the football world assumed Watt’s Peloton profile hinted at his location being either the Green Bay Packers, Buffalo Bills, or Cleveland Browns.
This revelation sent fans into a tizzy.
SB56....GB..CLE..BUF
There’s no subtlety here. Watt directly said he was pushing for a Super Bowl this season, and his choices were the Packers, Browns and Bills. All three teams figured to be in the mix for Watt anyway, but this is the first time we heard a semblance of a clue of his preference. Then quickly Watt denied that the profile was his.
This likely prompted Watt to pull a plug to the speculation, and just announce where he was going. It’s been a weird ride to even get to this point.
Fans have been drawing their own conclusions from Watt’s innocuous tweets. On Feb. 20, he posted a photo of his dogs at home. Packers fans felt the “home” photo was a reference to him returning to Wisconsin, Bills fans thought the red and blue of Liverpool and Everton on the TV meant Buffalo.
Then Buffalo fans saw this next tweet, and immediately thought it was a reference to them — all because there’s a cellular research lab in the city.
Then he talked about naps, and some felt it was a reference to the Vikings.
But, all the internet sleuthing and breadcrumb following found nothing. The Cardinals are a landing spot that makes sense, but definitely something nobody expected. It was assumed Watt would want to go to a team with an established track record of playoff success, now he joins a young, promising team looking to make a mark in the NFC West at a time the rest of the division seems to be crumbling.
The speculation was fun while it lasted, though.
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