The Cardinals pulled out all the stops to get All-Pro JJ Watt to land in Arizona — his only landing spot since Houston, where his NFL career began.
And sure, it probably helped that the Cardinals overpaid for Watt, whose best days are clearly behind him. Arizona signed Watt to a two-year, $31 million contract, with $23 million guaranteed, which was roughly double that the other teams were in the mix reportedly offered him.
But as much as money is important, it’s the little things in the margins that move the needle sometimes, and it looks like that’s what happened here, in helping him make his decision.
Cardinals general manager Steve Keim apparently pulled out all the stops in attempting to land Watt — even using country singer Blake Shelton to help pitch the All-Pro defensive lineman.
“When you look at J.J.’s history,” Keim began, on “The Rich Eisen Show,” as transcribed by CBS Sports, “the guy’s never been recruited. (He was a) walk-on at Central Michigan. The path that he’s taken, I think, it was probably fairly exciting for him to have a number of teams recruit him. I certainly pulled out all the stops.”
Whatever gets the job done.
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