The Arizona Cardinals got the final two seasons of the career of defensive lineman J.J. Watt, a future Hall of Famer.
After a decade with the Houston Texans, he played two for the Cardinals.
He revealed last week that he thought he would begin his career with them.
In a TikTok video for The NFL on CBS, he named all 10 players who were selected before he was in the 2011 NFL draft. He was selected 11th overall by the Houston Texans.
That year, the Cardinals had the fifth pick and selected cornerback Patrick Peterson.
But Watt recalled something that Cardinals fans probably didn’t know.
“They told me the Cardinals might trade with the Texans and I was going to the Cardinals,” he said.
This was a trade rumor story that didn’t get out. That year with the draft, it was during the NFL lockout and the Cardinals did not have a solution at quarterback, so potentially drafting one was an option. But had they taken Watt instead of Peterson, that could have changed things. Watt was Defensive Player of the Year three times with Houston.
Would he have had the same career?
That is something we will never know, but these tidbits from the past are always fun to learn from.
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