The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season quickly took a turn for the worse in week one of 2022 when T.J. Watt suffered a partially torn pectoral muscle against the Cincinnati Bengals. Appearing as a guest on Ben Roethlisberger’s Footbahlin’ podcast, Watt talked about the injury and revealed that it’s something that he still thinks about.
“The pec this past year was tough. Just having a great offseason, feeling really good going into the season, feeling like I’m playing well against Cincinnati,” Watt said. “I had Joe Burrow locked up and my arm got stuck behind me and that’s how I tore my pec. The amount of times I’ve replayed that play in my mind, if I just kept my hands low, there’s no hands to the face, A, and then, B, if I just stay on my feet and wrap him up and take him down game’s over, pec is fine. The amount of times I’ve drove myself nuts thinking like that.”
Watt was called for illegal hands to the face, but the 15-yard penalty was far from the biggest loss on the play, as Steelers fans waited with bated breath to find out how long Watt would miss. It soured what otherwise was an exciting victory over the reigning AFC champs.
Both of his brothers had previously torn their pec in his career, so they tried to prepare him for the worst while he was going through the scans.
He returned to the team after their bye week, playing his second game of the season in Week 9 against the New Orleans Saints. While he ended up playing 10 games in 2022, Watt said he never got fully healthy, despite finishing with 5.5 sacks.
“As soon as I came back, I never really got to 100%,” Watt said. “I had a rib, I had a thumb, just one of those years for me where I could never get 100% fully healthy. I feel great now and it’s been a great offseason for me.”
A healthy Watt is a benefit for the Steelers, who went 8-2 in games he played last season, 1-7 in games he missed. Watt being on the field is a huge boost to Pittsburgh’s defense across the board, and for a team that didn’t score a lot of points last year, keeping the score down was essential. Watt’s a do-everything talent who excels in the pass rush, and his health is going to be one of the keys to Pittsburgh’s season in 2023.
Who knows what Pittsburgh’s season would’ve looked like last year with a healthy Watt. While the team probably wins one or two more games, they probably wouldn’t have been a serious threat in the AFC. But they did catch their stride late in the season, which can be attributed to Watt’s return and a run game that finally took off after being stuck in the mud for much of the early part of the season.
Having Watt fully healthy is an exciting prospect for 2023, as he continues to get better alongside Alex Highsmith, who led the team with 14.5 sacks last year. Watt being healthy and ready to go means the Steelers should return to the top of the league when it comes to getting sacks, and it just makes the defense and the team that much stronger. With him now almost a year removed from the injury, it’s time for Watt to go ball out and show why he won Defensive Player of the Year in 2021.
