Kubiak, a former offensive coordinator, wasn't sure what advice he'd give if his offense had to stop Watt from knocking down passes.

"Boy, I tell you what, it's difficult," he said after a long pause. "It's not like you can duck and throw under him and stuff like that."

Veteran defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said Watt has mastered his scheme so thoroughly that he gives him freedom to make his own decisions and attack each play the way he wants to. Phillips says that's what you do when you have great players.

"I am amazed that he can continue to just dominate people the way he has," Phillips said. "He has a great knack for football, he plays football. Some guys play hard or maybe they can whip somebody up front. But this guy, he sees the ball, knocks the ball down, makes tackles for losses that other people don't see."

Not bad for a player who gave up his scholarship at Central Michigan as a tight end to walk on at Wisconsin. He delivered pizzas when he first enrolled at Wisconsin because he wanted to help his parents pay for school. He didn't have to pay for school for long. He earned a scholarship after a year on the scout team.

It was while at Wisconsin that Watt first began working with children and realized what a small gesture could mean to a young fan. Ask the man who makes his living terrorizing quarterbacks about that work and his eyes soften and a wide grin spreads across his face.

"As a kid I grew up watching the Packers practices and just getting a high five from a Packer was the coolest thing in the world to me," he said. "So I know what it feels like and so if I can put a smile on one kid's face by signing an autograph or just giving them a handshake or talking to them then there's no reason for me not to. It would be very selfish of me not to do that."

He's bonded with three local children who were orphaned in 2011 in a car accident which also left two of them paralyzed. Since then Watt and the children talk or text several times a week.

"Every time I get a call from them," he said, "it puts a smile on my face."