HOUSTON -- Deshaun Watson walked into Sunday's postgame news conference wearing Gucci, while DeAndre Hopkins strolled in sporting Houston Texans gear.

But J.J. Watt flexed the ultimate sign of readiness for the Texans' AFC wild-card matchup against the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday (4:35 p.m. ET, ESPN) by showing up dressed in full pads sans helmet. Forgive him for the overt display of eagerness, but Watt has come a long way from the pain of the horrific broken leg and back surgeries suffered over the past two years, and he seeks to face a new adversity that doesn't involve his own body this time.

"There were points in the last two years where I was sitting on my couch and thought about everything," Watt said. "I thought about never, ever playing, period, again. I also thought about playing great again. You think about everything."

Now it's time for Indianapolis to put that level of thought into keeping Watt off quarterback Andrew Luck in the postseason.

It won't be easy.

A three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, Watt pieced together a resurgent 2018 campaign by notching an AFC-high 16 sacks and an NFL-high seven forced fumbles, which included the 1.5 sacks, forced fumble and four tackles contributed Sunday in Houston's 20-3 victory to close the regular season against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The victory at NRG Stadium gave the Texans their third AFC South title in four seasons.

Even the performance against the Jaguars triggered a little fear regarding Watt's health.

On the play coming out of the first-half two-minute warning, Watt dropped Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles for an 8-yard loss and forced a fumble, but he emerged from the pile feeling pain in his right elbow. Watt slapped a brace on the elbow and played the rest of the game. He said the elbow injury won't affect his availability Saturday against the Colts.

X-rays on the elbow were negative, but Watt planned to get a more thorough examination on Monday.

"My arm just got jacked up in a couple different directions," he said. "I'll get it checked out a little bit more [Monday]. Obviously, [I] went back in the game. It's playoff football now. [It] doesn't matter. You can cut it off [and I'll] still play."

Texans coach Bill O'Brien marveled at Watt's resilience. The season Watt produced in 2018 marked the fourth time in his career the defensive lineman has registered 15 or more sacks, a feat bested only by the late Reggie White, who put together five such seasons.

Watt also logged 25 quarterback hits in 2018, giving him an NFL-high 211 since his 2011 rookie season. He finished the season with the fourth-most sacks in franchise history.

"Like I said 6,000 times, what else can be said about the guy?" O'Brien said. "He's an incredible athlete. He's got great character, great work ethic. To do what he's done to come back, and people talk about the leg injury, but it was the back injury and the other things that he dealt with over the last three years. To be able to come back and play at that level, I mean, it's hard to put that into words what he's done."

There's still more left to do for Watt and the Texans, who became the sixth squad since 1980 to advance to the postseason after an 0-3 start.

Watt believes he's up to the challenge, having learned from past playoff experiences.

"There's a lot of energy, there's obviously a ton of excitement," Watt said. "At the end of the day it's between the white lines, it's football. You have to go out there, you have to play good defense, you have to score points, you have to play sound football. That's probably the biggest thing: you have to remember to play within yourself, not try to go out there and do so much because it's the playoffs and you think you have to make every single play. As long as we play our type of football, we do our jobs, everybody knows what their assignment is, execute it, that's how you win. It doesn't change how you win in the playoffs. It just comes down to who can do it better."