Cardinals' Watt to return to practice Monday

Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt announced during Friday's preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs that he'll be back at practice Monday, according to ESPN's Field Yates.

Watt landed on the physically unable to perform list July 28 due to a hamstring injury.

Arizona defensive line coach Brentson Buckner recently said his plan is to have Watt on the field for 65% of his team's defensive snaps this season, per Jim Trotter of NFL.com.

"I've told him, 'You've got capable young guys, so let them eat some of the snaps,'" Buckner said. "It's super hard for him because he's always had to be the man, but I've told him that he's got to be able to trust me that every guy in our room is going to have a role, and one might be for a guy to take 10 snaps off J.J. in the run game."

A first-round pick in 2011, Watt played every game through his first five NFL campaigns. However, he's played only two full seasons since 2016 due to injury concerns.

"Every offseason, there has been trainers and doctors telling you, 'Hey, you have to be conservative here, you have to take it easy here; you can't do this, you can't do that; you can only do this, you can only do that,'" said Watt, who played at least 88% of the Houston Texans' defensive snaps every year he was healthy from 2011 to 2020.

"It gets to a point where, yes, I can go out there and play, but if I can't train the way I need to train and practice the way I need to practice, then I'm not going to be the player I need to be."

Watt was one of the Cardinals' biggest free-agent acquisitions this offseason. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year racked up 52 tackles, five sacks, and seven pass breakups through 16 appearances with the Texans in 2020.

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