Coming off of a dominant 2021 season for the Pittsburgh Steelers that saw him tie the NFL’s single-season sacks record with 22.5 and win his first NFL Defensive Player of the Year award, T.J. Watt is poised for yet another massive season this fall for the black and gold.
Despite being arguably the best pure defensive player in football at the moment, Watt isn’t worried about individual accolades or achieving a certain number of sacks, tackles for loss or turnovers forced. Instead, Watt has one goal in mind, a goal that’s been there his entire career: winning a Super Bowl for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Sitting down with Steelers.com’s Missi Matthews, Watt addressed his goals for the season, putting it very simply that his one-track mind is focused on raising the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season.
“That’s really the only goal right now. Like I said, I’m not a big individual goal guy,” Watt said, according to video via Steelers.com. “I don’t have x amount of sacks, x amount of TFLs. It truly is be game wrecker and win the Super Bowl. That’s really all there is to it at this point.”
That will certainly endear him to Steelers’ fans all over again. Watt, who is already that true game-wrecker he aims to be, is just missing one thing from his future Hall of Fame resume, which happens to be the big, shiny silver trophy at the end of the season.
Though he’s only focused on the Super Bowl, Watt is set to become the Steelers’ all-time leader in sacks at some point this season, as he sits just 8.5 sacks away from passing James Harrison’s mark of 80.5.
While the Super Bowl is a team achievement overall, it’s something that Watt will continue to chase relentless, racking up sacks, tackles for loss, and forced fumbles along the way. If Watt can put together another DPOY-caliber season and continue to wreck games for the Steelers’ defense, Pittsburgh should be able to get into the postseason once again.
From there, all bets are off when the best defensive player in football has a chance to change a game in the postseason.
