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Texans defensive tackle J.J. Watt was, before missing 13 games with a back injury last season, the best defensive player in the NFL. So will Watt be as good a player this year as he was before?

No. According to Texans coach Bill O’Brien, he’ll be better.

“I can tell you right now the guy’s going to be at the top of his game,” O’Brien told Peter King of TheMMQB.com. “He’s had a great training camp. I think he’ll be better than he was.”

Watt, who won his third career defensive player of the year award in 2015 while playing through the back injury that eventually caused him to miss most of 2016, said he can’t guarantee that O’Brien is right about that.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he said. “I’m sure the doctors don’t know the answer. That’s the goal. But all I know is I can be as smart as I can possibly be, and that’s with practice reps, that’s with workouts, that’s with doing everything I can to make sure that for those 16 games-plus a year, I am ready to roll. I feel great and as long as we stick to the plan that we’ve got—a day off here and there, some practice reps off here and there—I think we are going to be in good shape.”

The Texans were already a playoff team without Watt last year. If Watt comes back better than ever, Houston is in very good shape.