Believe it or not, J.J. Watt was the lowest-rated recruit among the three boys in his family.

The former two-star recruit is obviously at a different stage of his career, though. He collected his third Associated Press NFL Defensive Player of the Year award last week, which could still be just the beginning for the 26-year-old former Badger.

Brothers Derek and T.J. are doing what they can to follow their brother’s path to superstardom. Derek is training to prepare for the pre-draft workouts while T.J. is developing as a B1G linebacker.

T.J., the youngest Watt, got a reminder over the weekend about just how impressive J.J.’s rise has been.

It left a lasting impression:

J.J. has never been shy about his “anything-is-possible” approach. When he accepted his defensive player of the year honor, he talked about growing up in Wisconsin and trying to imitate his favorite players, much like many kids are probably doing now.

He also gave a nice little message to those who questioned his abilities.

It’ll be interesting to follow of Derek and T.J. Watt as they both continue their careers. They’ll likely deal with being “J.J. Watt’s little brothers” as long as he’s in the NFL.

But as T.J. said in his text to J.J., that’s not such a bad thing.