Watt and Mercilus out for season with injuries
HOUSTON — As the Houston Texans face another long stretch without superstar J.J. Watt, they know the rest of their defence will have to step up to make up for his absence after he and linebacker Whitney Mercilus both suffered season-ending injuries on Sunday night.
“These guys that are there, they’re going to have to step in and … it’s going to be multiple guys,” coach Bill O’Brien said.
“You don’t replace J.J. Watt or Whitney Mercilus with one guy. That’s just ridiculous. It’s going to be a lot of different guys that are going to chip in to help and I think the coaching staff needs to do a great job, too.”
O’Brien confirmed that both were season-ending injuries on Monday, a day after Watt broke his left leg and Mercilus, an outside linebacker, tore a pectoral muscle in a 42-34 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.