J.J. Watt Has More TD Receptions than Jags Tight Ends Combined

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The Jacksonville Jaguars have tossed only 12 total passing touchdowns this season. Houston Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick notched six touchdown passes just last week. One of those touchdown passes went to defensive end J.J. Watt, who now has three receiving touchdowns on the season, making him a more prolific “tight end” than any of the actual tight ends on the Jaguars’ roster.

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The Jags have had a multitude of players in at tight end this season, struggling to deal with injuries to Marcedes Lewis (now returned) and primary backup Clay Harbor earlier in the season. None of them contributed much on offense except for Harbor and Lewis, but even they are surpassed in scoring by Watt.

Lewis and Harbor have both found the end zone once in their combined 37 receptions. Lewis used to be a rather high scoring tight end, but it may be time for the Jaguars to seek a replacement for the former first-round pick. Harbor has never managed to turn in the blocking performances that Lewis has, making his role limited with the offense.

Watt, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be going anywhere for the Texans. He’ll be a fixture on defense (and apparently offense) for many more years to come, racking up the TDs, despite not knowing what is going on inside the huddle.

Hopefully the Jaguars will find a way to limit Watt in his traditional defensive end position and he won’t tack on a fourth touchdown reception. He’s had a TD reception in two of the last three games, which may suggest a trend developing for him to be involved on gimmicky, goal-line plays. If the Jags can stop Arian Foster and Ryan Fitzpatrick can’t repeat his big day, then the Texans may not be in position to tack on another score.

It’d be nice if the Jags’ tight ends scored a couple TDs to pull ahead of Watt too, because frankly it’s rather embarrassing to be surpassed by a defensive end here, even if he did play tight end back in high school and early in his college career.