J.J. Watt: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Greatest Defensive Ends Paperback - 2015

From the publisher

Learn the Inspiring Story of the Houston Texan JJ Watt!

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In J.J. Watt: The Inspiring Story of One of Football's Greatest Defensive Ends, you will learn the inspirational story of one of football's premier defensive ends, JJ Watt. Since joining the NFL, JJ Watt has quickly emerged as one of the league's best defensive players, causing opposing teams to double and sometimes even triple team him to try to contain him. His impact on the defensive end of the field is truly invaluable

JJ's journey to playing professional football is an inspirational one of perseverance and hard work. In this book, you'll explore his journey to the NFL, as well as the highs and lows of his career thus far.

Here is a preview of what is inside this book:

• Early Life and Childhood
• High School Years of JJ Watt
• JJ Watt's College Years at Central Michigan, Wisconsin
• Watt's NFL Career
• Watt's Personal Life
• JJ Watt's Impact on Football and Beyond
• Watt's Legacy in the NFL

An excerpt from the book:

After making the decision to jump to the NFL, the first step of being able to play on Sundays was going through the Rookie Combine that was held in February 2011 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. This was considered the best time to make a major impact on how you were judged by the NFL scouts from all 32 teams in the league. Watt was able to do that as he came in as his six-foot-five, 290-pound physique that was easily noticed. He wasn't the fastest in the 40-yard dash, but it wasn't too far from the leaders at about 4.81 seconds -which is still a good mark for someone of his size. He was also able to do a 10-yard split in about 1.64 seconds, the 20-yard split in 2.71 seconds and completed the three-cone agility drill in just under seven seconds. He was also a standout for his strength with a total of 34 repetitions of bench pressing the 225-pound weight given to all Combine participants. In addition to his opportunities to show his speed and strength, he was also able to complete the vertical jump at about 37 inches and then performed a 10-foot broad jump.

Now in addition to his physical skills, Watt also scored a 31 on the Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test, which is famously used by NFL teams to see how well the new batch of rookies can show their aptitude for solving problems that could translate to being able to think quickly on the field when faced with a variety of adversities to find success. The average player in the NFL would score about 20 on this Wonderlic test, while a perfect score would be 50. Watt's 31 was close to players like Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers' 35 and a lot better than other notable players who have had scores as low as 4 (i.e. Morris Claiborne from the 2012 NFL Draft).

Yet with all of those statistics from the NFL Combine, Watt was marked with a grade of 8.37 out of 10, which fell within the range that predicts whether or not a player will be capable of becoming an All-Pro player in the league. The experts from the NFL were considering Watt as a perfect fit for a team that uses a 4-3 defensive scheme - four linemen and three linebackers. However, experts speculated that there might be some benefits to using him as an end in a 3-4 - three linemen and four linebackers. He did receive some negative marks for not being considered a fast start off the line and attacking blocks, but made up for it with his ability pursue the quarterback with straight-line speed.

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