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When Derek Watt was 2 years old, he approached his mom, Connie, with a simple request.

Until that point, Derek — born Derek John Watt — had gone by D.J., just as his older brother, Justin James Watt, went by J.J. Months earlier, Connie and her husband, John, had welcomed their third son, Trent Jordan Watt, and naturally, they called him T.J.

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But the couple’s middle child, even at this young age, was different from his brothers.

“Just call me Derek,” he told his mother.

Connie obliged, though not without some good-natured ribbing.

“I said, ‘OK,” she recalled, “and I would just call him Just Derek all the time.”

When the food was ready on the table? “Just Derek, it’s time for dinner!”

When mom wanted to summon her son? “Just Derek, come over here!”

Derek would reply with a frustrated, “Mom! No!”

Connie thought it would just be a phase. Derek would go back to D.J. at some point. Kids are fickle and unpredictable. But Derek persisted.

“I would say, ‘But D.J. is a pretty cool name, you know?’” Connie said. “He didn’t want any of it.”

“He wanted to be his own person,” she added.

He still does. The stage is just a little bit bigger.

All three Watt brothers played college football at Wisconsin and now are in the NFL — Derek with the Chargers, J.J. with the Texans and T.J. with the Steelers.

The similarities, though, stop there.

J.J. and T.J are two of the best pass-rushers in football, nightmare fuel for quarterbacks across the league. Derek plays fullback, perhaps the most unassuming and under-appreciated position on the field.

J.J. is 6-foot-5, 288 pounds and T.J. is 6-4, 252 pounds. Derek is 6-2, 235 pounds.

J.J. and T.J. were both first-round picks. Derek was selected in the sixth round.

J.J. is a five-time first-team All-Pro and a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, while T.J. made the Pro Bowl last year in his second NFL season. The only career award on Derek’s Wikipedia page is the USA Today second-team All-American honor he earned after his senior season at Pewaukee High School.

J.J. is a household name. T.J. will be there soon. Derek logs onto Twitter and reads comments like, “Oh, I didn’t even know there was a third brother.”

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“It’s really too bad that sometimes when I see kids coming up to him, they’re actually interested because he’s J.J.’s brother,” Connie said. “It is hard to see, because Derek works really hard, and he’s a great person, he’s a great football player. So I wish he did get a little more recognition from people.”

Happy #NationalSiblingsDay from the Watt trio feat. Papa Watt 👍#FootballIsFamily pic.twitter.com/Qe5SrpQ8WP

— Los Angeles Chargers (@Chargers) April 10, 2018

But Derek is genuinely at peace with his place in the football world. He’s more interested in making “a name within the business.”

“I don’t need a name with the fans,” said Derek, 26. “If people don’t know who I am, then you don’t know who I am.”

Most fans aren’t watching highlights of fullbacks throwing their bodies into defensive ends or linebackers on the edge when blocking a power running play. Most fans aren’t watching highlights of punt-coverage tackles.

Which means most fans aren’t watching highlights of Derek, who is both the lead blocker for a rushing attack that averaged the seventh-most yards per carry in the NFL last season and a key piece of the Chargers’ special-teams coverage units.

“He knows straight up that as a fullback, no matter what he does or how good he would possibly be, he’s not going to get the recognition or the fame that the other two have gotten or are going to get,” John, his father, said. “So the expectations are not there that he’s ever going to be a super-duper star.”

“I think that’s kind of just the way he wants it,” added T.J., who is two years younger than Derek. “I don’t know if he wants all the glory.”

He doesn’t. But he’s also not content with living in his brothers’ shadow. 

“I want to make my own name and be successful in my own right,” Derek said. 

The irony is that Derek was the most outgoing and gregarious of the three brothers while growing up in Waukesha, Wis.

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The Watt family used to vacation on Carnival cruises, and Derek would happily attend Camp Carnival, which hosts daily activities for younger children aboard the ship. T.J. would give his mother a firm, “Nope.” J.J., who is four years older than Derek, was content with sitting and reading. Derek wouldn’t know any of the other kids, but he’d always return with a new acquaintance or two.

From the backyard in the “pool” (on concrete by the way) to the basement’s dangerous mini-sticks games, to the biggest stage, couldn’t ask for two better bros to both push me and talk trash in the group chat to me the entire way. #NationalSiblingsDay pic.twitter.com/N9noVJPpUE

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) April 10, 2018

“He is different,” Connie said. “He’s just a really strong person independently. He has no problem going into a room and meeting friends. … The other two are more shy.”

Derek was the first of the three to want to sleep on the top bunk.

“He was really adventuresome,” Connie said.

In high school, he participated in skits at pep rallies with classmates. One time, they contorted their bodies into a human bicycle and performed a dance.

“Derek loves to be around people and talking to people,” Connie said. “He’s a social guy, for sure.”

There’s irony, too, in the fact that Derek was the best high school football player of the three brothers.

“I would say by far,” John said.

“Derek is the best high school athlete I’ve ever seen in my life,” T.J. said.

Derek “matured” earlier than J.J. and T.J., John says, and was already close to his current height by the time he was a junior in high school.

“Derek had already grown into his body,” John said ,”and he was pretty doggone good, on defense and offense.”

“I played a little bit of everything,” Derek said.

And he means it.

Derek primarily played running back in Pewaukee’s Wing-T offense, and inside linebacker. He finished his high school career with 2,685 rushing yards, 44 rushing touchdowns, 625 receiving yards, five receiving touchdowns, five forced fumbles, 140 tackles, 6.5 sacks and three interceptions.

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He also had one punt-return touchdown and one kick-return touchdown. Oh, and he made 32 of 33 extra points as a senior. He punted as well. In his final high school game, a first-round Wisconsin state playoff bout with Catholic Memorial, Derek rushed for 256 yards and two touchdowns.

“I don’t think he ever came off the field, for even a play,” John said.

Derek was recruited to Wisconsin as an inside linebacker, following the path paved by J.J., who had starred as a defensive end for the Badgers after starting his collegiate career as a tight end at Central Michigan.

This is the only topic that brings some fire out of Derek, though it quickly subsides. He’s heard the slights ever since he set foot on campus in Madison: “You got a scholarship because of your brother.”

“That’s garbage,” Derek said. “I’m not here because J.J. is my brother, I’ll tell you that. People try to say that. They can change the narrative all they want.

“I’m not going to say it didn’t do anything, because it definitely doesn’t hurt, that’s for sure. It definitely helps you get exposure. But just that alone isn’t going to get you anywhere.

“All three of us have worked tremendously hard, and we are where we are because we were raised the right way and we pushed each other.”

Derek redshirted as a freshman at Wisconsin and returned for his second year preparing to compete for playing time at inside linebacker. But at practice two weeks before the season opener, then-Badgers coach Bret Bielema had an idea.

“I was practicing with the defense and he called me over,” Derek remembered. “He said, ‘Come over here quick. We’re going to call this play. Go block that spot. Go block that guy.’ I went and did it, and he said, ‘All right, I can work with that.’ He just wanted to see if I could do it, and I did it. Went and hit him pretty good. So he said, ‘I can work with that,’ and from then on I was a fullback. It’s gone pretty well.”

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Bielema moved on to Arkansas before the Badgers played in the Rose Bowl in 2012, and the program cycled through two more head coaches over Derek’s final three seasons in Madison — Gary Andersen in 2013 and 2014, then Paul Chryst in 2015. Derek’s playing time waned under Anderson, but he put enough on tape his senior season to land on NFL radars.

The Chargers took him with the 198th overall pick in the 2016 draft, and Derek has played in all 50 possible games, including two postseason contents, in his first three NFL seasons.

“It’s not a glorified position,” said Derek, whose defensive experience has allowed him to stand out on special teams. “But it’s gotten me here.”

Derek has yet to play against J.J. in an NFL game. J.J. was injured the lone time the Chargers faced the Texans in Derek’s three seasons. But last year, Derek faced off with T.J. when the Chargers beat the Steelers, 33-30, in early December.

Derek was only in for two offensive snaps. The two brothers still went head-to-head, though, rekindling the battles they used to have on the Wisconsin practice field when they were Badgers teammates.

“The very first play I was in, I was running to the flat and he came out and just tried to chip me a little bit,” Derek said. “But we’ve never had a play where we’ve actually had to hit each other.”

They took pictures together on the field after the game.

.@DerekWatt34 & @_TJWatt exchange jerseys after #LACvsPIT! pic.twitter.com/IytgtmYcVE

— NFL (@NFL) December 3, 2018

“It was weird to watch,” J.J. said the week after that matchup. “I talked to my parents yesterday about it, and I shared their feeling where you literally didn’t know what to root for.”

Connie and John will endure that feeling again twice this season. The Chargers face the Texans in Week 3 and the Steelers in Week 6. Both games are at home at Dignity Health Sports Park.

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“I play at Derek’s stadium this year,” J.J. said, “so hopefully I don’t get tomatoes thrown at me.”

For the brothers, the meetings won’t be overly monumental. They spend time working out together in the offseason and also text “every single day” in a group chat, Derek said.

“Between the three of us we probably exchange at least 100 texts a day, every day,” J.J. said.

Decisions, decisions…. pic.twitter.com/VKrmQkyrRM

— JJ Watt (@JJWatt) December 3, 2018

The messages are mostly supportive.

“If something good happens, you’re going to hear about it,” Derek said. “If something really weird or bad happens, you’re going to hear about it.”

All three brothers “know football,” Derek says, so even though he plays a different position, his opinion is welcomed by J.J. and T.J.

Still, the divide remains.

“They can talk more technique and more schematically just in general,” Derek said.

He’s different. Always has been.

But he’s found his place — not just in the football world, but in the world at large.

Derek was the first of the brothers to get married, to Gabriella in 2018. He was the first of the brothers to have a child, a son, Logan, who was born in February.

“He’s just in love with that little boy like you can’t even believe,” Connie said.

I Love This Little Man! 💙 pic.twitter.com/I6D1ODxJSi

— Derek Watt (@DerekWatt34) August 26, 2019

“Derek was definitely made for fatherhood. There’s no doubt about it,” John said. “I think if you would have asked him even five years ago what his dream would be, it would be to be married and have a little one. The other two, I don’t know that it’s so much that way. I can see them in the same boat, and they’d both be excellent fathers, too. But I think Derek, a little more, had it always in his stars.”

Mini Me! 😎 Logan always tries taking my glasses so we got him a pair of his own! pic.twitter.com/IZQekVuCVf

— Derek Watt (@DerekWatt34) August 31, 2019

“He’s settled down,” T.J. said. “He’s got his wife. He’s got his kid. He’s got his dog and everything. So I think he’s just happy going out there and playing football. You don’t have to always have everything else that comes with it.”

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No, you don’t.

But don’t be mistaken: Derek hears every fan who points at him and says, “That’s J.J.’s brother! That’s JJ’s brother!”

He views the dynamic differently. Fittingly.

“They’re Derek’s brothers,” he said.

(Mark Kaboly and Aaron Reiss of The Athletic contributed to this story.)

(Top photo of Derek Watt: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

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