During the regular season, we’re always passing along the Pittsburgh Steelers’ and opposition’s injury reports. Who’s in, who’s out, who looks likely or not to suit up for the weekend. T.J. Watt spends time checking out the opposing report but through a slightly different lens. One that he uses to help set up his own practice schedule.
Watt appeared as the latest big-name guest on Ben Roethlisberger’s Footbahlin podcast to discuss what he’s looking for.
“I don’t look at practice reports to see who’s hurt. I just want to see if a guy is practicing or not. If he’s not practicing, I’m practicing. That’s already a level up mentally I have on the guy I’m going against.”
In the modern-day sports world, veteran players are basically put on pitch counts. In basketball, there’s “load management” to limit the number of games played; stars rarely playing back-to-back contests. In baseball, pitch counts have limited pitchers to save their arms. In football, veterans often get a day off early in the week to allow their bodies additional time to rest. Oftentimes, that means veteran linemen are getting a Wednesday or Thursday off to have their body fresh for the weekend.
For Watt, he says he’ll make it a point to practice if he knows the right tackle from the other team might not be. That means Watt will enter the game with more reps, a better feel for his team’s gameplan, and that’ll give him a better chance to win on Sunday.
Still, Watt admitted he doesn’t get too caught up in the opponent. He told Roethlisberger feeling good and having confidence in yourself is the #1 component to playing well. Watt has plenty of reasons for confidence as the Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 who is already on a clear Hall of Fame track after just six NFL seasons.
Watt did add that getting a sack early in a game is another mental leg up on the guy he’s going against.
“If you get a sack early in a game,” he said. “It’s a mental game for the tackles, you have them in a mixer right away. That’s always the best feeling.”
Because you know we’re big stats nerds, since entering the league in 2017, Watt ranks tied for sixth in the NFL in first-quarter sacks with 13 of them. That’s just a couple shy from the league leader over that span, Chandler Jones and his 16.5. Of course, Watt missed half of last season and had he not suffered his torn pectoral in the 2022 opener, he would’ve challenged Jones for that top mark.
Check out the entire conversation below.
