NFL athletes are human too, and they need as much rest as we do to stay fit, healthy, and ready for the next game. In the regular season, it becomes more hectic for them, obviously, due to all the hits, tackles, slips, and falls. Sometimes, players get very little time to bounce back from these strains, and former defensive end JJ Watt believes that recovery only gets tougher over time.
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“The older you get, the longer it takes,” Watt wrote in response to an ‘X’ user’s question about recovery during the regular season. He stated that at 22, when a college senior enters the NFL, they could take the field the day after a regular season game. They physically feel ready to go.
But age eventually catches up to them, something very apparent across each position. A quarterback, who receives the most protection, often has a longer career. While a running back, who endures the most physical impact, typically has the shortest.
Running backs also tend to earn less and are considered less reliable over time. For them, a 17-game season is very demanding. Why so? They take more hits and don’t recover so fast. But quarterbacks, in today’s NFL landscape, are barely touched, shoved. As a result, they take less time to recover and get more time to prep for the next game.
Then there’s the Thursday Night Game. For an athlete who isn’t 22, it’s very hard to perform equally well on Sunday and the following Thursday. Recovering isn’t that easy in just three days, especially for the traveling team. Moreover, “Mental prep is limited due to time constraints,” Watt argues.
The upside? It’s the extended rest afterward. “But the long weekend is nice,” Watt says, having played 12 seasons in the NFL and starting 151 games.
The older you get, the longer it takes.
At 22, you feel like you could play again the next day.Nobody can deny Thursday games are more difficult on the body (especially for the traveling team) and mental prep is limited due to time constraints.
But the long weekend is nice. https://t.co/m5gh4US3OU
— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) November 4, 2024
So, the secret to recovery is time, which NFL players barely get. At least 20 players get injured and sidelined each week for that very reason. A six-day rest, rehab isn’t always enough.
It is, however, often manageable when it’s just hits and blows. We’ve also seen players push through injuries, like when Patrick Mahomes was hurt in the Divisional Round in 2023 against the Jaguars yet still returned to finish the game. Six days later, he took the field again—this time against his biggest rivals, the Bengals.
Mahomes won that game and eventually his second Super Bowl while playing through injury. But sometimes, even small issues can impact players. For instance, Anthony Richardson needed a breather mid-game while facing the Texans last month, even though he wasn’t injured.
