J.J. Watt will play in the Texans preseason opener

John McClain of the Houston Chronicle has reported that the Houston Texans intend to play star defensive end J. Watt in their opening preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. Watt will return to the field for the first time since undergoing the two back operations that cost him the 2016 season.
Watt struggled with injury throughout last year. After missing the entire preseason after surgery, he managed just 157 snaps in the regular season before he was sent on the season-ending IR. By Watt’s exceptionally high standards, he had poor year, producing just nine quarterback pressures on 88 pass-rushing snaps and achieving a PFF overall grade of just 52.7, the lowest season grade of his career.
Over the last few years, Watt has been one of the best defensive players in football. From 2012 to 2015, he earned PFF overall grades of 97.9, 99.5, 97.9 and 94.9, respectively, and he led all 3-4 defensive ends in pass-rush productivity (the PFF metric that measures pressure on a per snap basis with weighting towards sacks) in every year. Over the course of his career, J.J. Watt has accumulated 424 quarterback pressures on 2875 pass-rush snaps, and averages a sack, hit or hurry once every 7 pass rushing snaps.