Did missing half of the 2022 season due to injury really cause Pittsburgh Steelers star outside linebacker T.J. Watt to fall off a bit?
Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar certainly believes so, ranking Watt at No. 5 in his best pass rusher rankings ahead of the 2023 season, behind Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, San Francisco’s Nick Bosa, Dallas’ Micah Parsons and Las Vegas’ Maxx Crosby.
Those aren’t bad names to be behind overall, but it’s still rather shocking to see Watt sitting at No. 5 in the ranking when he has something only one other player in the top five (Bosa) has: a Defensive Player of the Year award.
“Watt was the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year, and he ranked first overall in our 2022 list of edge-defenders. Unfortunately, injuries robbed him of seven games last season, but he still racked up seven sacks, four quarterback hits, 20 quarterback hurries, and 25 stops, and he looked very much his old self by the end of last year’s campaign,” Farrar writes regarding Watt’s ranking. “Watt’s speed rush around the edge has always been a force multiplier. If a healthy T.J. Watt is at the top of next year’s list of edge defenders, it shouldn’t surprise anyone.”
It’s a bit strange to punish a guy in rankings for getting hurt, yet still writing that when he was healthy he looked “very much” like his old self late in the season. But, Watt is in some elite company. Bosa, as stated previously, is the reigning DPOY coming off of an 18.5 sack season. Garrett is the first player since J.J. Watt in 2014-15 to record back-to-back 16+ sack seasons, doing so in 2021-22, while Parsons is coming off of a 13.5-sack season and has the makings of a future DPOY. Crosby is coming off of a career year with 12.5 sacks and is a foundational piece for the Raiders overall.
Watt, as is well known, missed seven games last season after suffering a partial tear of his pectoral muscle late in the fourth quarter of the Week 1 overtime win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Once he returned, Watt wasn’t fully himself. He didn’t start to feel healthy until late in the season, leading to a modest 5.5 sacks in 2022 after tying the NFL record for sacks in a single season with 22.5 in 2021.
When on the field though and healthy, he’s been simply dominant. Over his six-year NFL career, Watt has made five Pro Bowls, three All-Pro teams, tied the NFL single-season sack record, and is likely to set Pittsburgh’s career mark during the 2023 season, likely very early on, too.
When he’s healthy, there are few — if any — pass rushers better than Watt. He’s an absolute game-wrecker, one that opposing offenses have to gameplan around.
Watt has 77.5 career sacks, the most of any player in the league since he joined the league. It’s no small surprise that the Steelers’ best stretch of last season came with a healthy Watt. In the 10 games that Watt was healthy in 2022, the Steelers won eight games and lost only twice. They finished the season with a 9-8 record, meaning that when Watt was sidelined, Pittsburgh was 1-6.
Entering his age-29 season, Watt should be able to get back to his game-wrecking ways he’s shown throughout his NFL career. Once he does, he’ll get the respect he deserves once again, injuries in 2022 be damned.
