The Unbridled Greatness Of TJ Watt
Photo Credit: Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports
The Las Vegas Raiders did everything they could to stop TJ Watt. It didn’t matter. Just like the Cleveland Browns last week and the San Francisco 49ers the week before, there were no answers to be found. Time and again Watt has proved immune to almost all mitigating factors, including his own team’s performance. He’s a force at a level that is rarely seen in professional sports. As potentially football sacreligious as this may be to say, he is already a top-five defender in Steelers history.
Yes, he’s still young, and this is a team whose jersey has been worn by the likes of Polamalu, Harrison, Lambert, Ham, and Blount. But the numbers Watt puts up while being the direct focus of every opposing offensive coordinator are nothing short of unbelievable.
He was again dominant on Sunday night tallying two sacks and three QB hits while generating six pressures for a total pass-rush pressure rate of 20.7% on 29 pass-rush reps.
TJ Watt might be the best defensive player in the #NFL…
That’s his fifth sack in 2 games and half a quarter. He’s coming for the sack record
pic.twitter.com/AXhKs4GWwR— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) September 25, 2023
Shaun O’Hara, a former NFL offensive lineman and Good Morning Football guest co-host, couldn’t believe his eyes when recapping Watts’ destruction of Vegas’ O-line.
“I was mesmerized by T.J. Watt in this game. Alright look, I know I’m a former offensive lineman so I gravitate towards the line of scrimmage, but it’s not the sacks … it’s the amount of times I saw Jimmy Garoppolo do this [avoiding contact]. That little impact right there, as a quarterback you’re aware of it all the time. You see the sacks and the way he disrupted the game, but it’s not even the sacks or the hits. It’s just his presence. Every single time the quarterback would drop back it was like here comes this big paw coming in to swipe.
It’s unbelievable to watch him, his explosiveness, how fast he is and his craft. I couldn’t help but just lock in on him.”
Last week, just six seasons into a career, he became the Steelers’ all-time sack leader, passing James Harrison when he recorded sack number 81.5 against the Browns. SIX YEARS! Outrageous.
TJ Watt has broken the Steelers franchise sack record after making this sack on Watson 😤#HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/BpNDCmBnEU
— Enzo (@CFCxEnzo) September 19, 2023
He already blew Harrison’s single-season sack record out of the water by 6.5 when he set the NFL’s new mark with 22.5 in 2021 — and, by the way, he’s on pace to obliterate that this year. He has already been an Associated Press First-Team All-Pro selection three times, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year once, and been a five-time Pro Bowl selection.
Perhaps at 28 years of age it’s unreasonable to think he could ever reach the iconic numbers of all time sack leader Bruce Smith at 200 or second place Reggie White at 198. But perhaps it’s not. It’s absolutely reasonable that Watt could catch the No. 3 all-time sack leader Kevin Green and his 160 career sacks in just the next six years. And with the way athletes are training themselves and taking care of their bodies these days, primes are longer than they used to be. If Watt can maintain health and ability into his mid- or even late-30s, he could absolutely have a chance at catching White and Smith and could put himself in the conversation to go down as one of the greatest defensive football players the league has ever seen.
So many of the articles that get written after games focus on hard stances about things that went right or things that went wrong. Who deserves more playing time and who should see the bench. But not this one. No hot takes. No controversial ideas. This article is simply a reminder that the entire Steeler nation should take a step back and enjoy what they are witnessing: pure greatness at the height of his greatness.
Up Next