Michael Irvin: J.J. Watt bears responsibility for Texans’ lack of success

J.J. Watt is regarded by a lot of people as the best defensive player in the NFL. Don’t count Michael Irvin as one of them.

Watt was named the No. 3 player in the NFL in NFL Network’s annual ranking of the league’s top 100 players, and Irvin hated it. He said that Watt has failed to make his team better and Luke Kuechly is better.

“You won the Defensive Player of the Year the last three years, and in those three years your record was 2-14, 9-7, and 9-7,” Irvin said of Watt, via CBS Sports’s John Breech. “The Texans haven’t won a thing … J.J. Watt’s been the baddest man in the league and they haven’t gotten close to any kind of championship.

“Whose fault is it that they’re not winning? He’s the star of the team. If the Dallas Cowboys lose on my watch, it’s my fault … If you’re the baddest man on the team, you’ve got to take it both ways, when it ain’t going right and you ain’t winning, that’s on you.”

Irvin argued that Kuechly was better because he makes his teammates better.

“I will take the guy who’s a little less talented, but has the ability to be a gatherer,” Irvin said. “I don’t want to just see you raise your hand while you’re playing great. I want to see you make others play great. I don’t want you to just play well on the field and raise your hand and win a bunch of awards. I want your playing well on the field to result in some significant changes in wins and losses that will get me into the playoffs and a Super Bowl, and that’s what Luke Kuechly does.”

Watt is surrounded by less talented teammates, and his team has an inferior quarterback to Kuechly’s. These things probably have a lot more to do with Houston’s lack of success relative to Carolina’s.

Watt has a habit, not once but twice, of firing back at critics on social media. We’ll see if he has anything to say to Irvin about this.