J.J. Watt will return for the first time since before Halloween when the Houston Texans host the Buffalo Bills in Saturday afternoon's wild-card game.
Watt, who returned from a torn pectoral muscle suffered in Week 8, will have his snaps monitored by the coaching staff.
"Well, he's a pretty good pass rusher, so I would like to get some pass-rushing reps out of him. So, you're looking at third down, two minute and then we'll see after that," defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel said Tuesday, via the team's official transcript.
NFL Network's James Palmer has reported all week that the Texans' plan is to keep an eye on Watt's snaps in his return, knowing that he won't be able to take on a full complement of reps.
"I think that we'll have to kind of measure to see where he is and how he's doing, because he hasn't played in eight games," Crennel said. "Even though he's been working with the strength and conditioning people, the football condition when you're playing a big game, your adrenaline gets picked up and you get winded a little bit faster. We'll have to measure that to see how that goes, and then I think that will impact how much he plays. But I don't think that we want to expose him too much if he's not able to go at a good level."
Watt knows he can't expect to play his normal workload but is ready to make a difference in key high-leverage situations.
"I think we have a good plan," Watt said. "I think we have a good plan for how we're going to utilize the game and how we're going to go throughout the game. I think today was a good day for me. Today was my first day in pads. We were in pads out there on the field and it was good. I went through a lot of tests that I wanted to go through personally. Just mentally, when you're coming back from -- you've got to go through some tests mentally to make sure that you can do the things you want to do, and today was a really good day for that. I felt really good out there, did a whole bunch of different stuff to try and simulate what's going to happen in the game and felt very good in all of those things. So, very pleased with where it's at."
Getting a former three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner back in any capacity is a boon to a Texans defense that ranks near the bottom of the NFL in nearly every statistic this season, including T-26th in sacks.
Even with Watt playing a limited role, his presence alone should play a big part as the Texans try to win their second playoff game of the Bill O'Brien era.