The Pittsburgh Steelers tried something a little unconventional when they gave star OLB T.J. Watt the green dot, making him the primary play-caller for the team’s Week One matchup against the New England Patriots in 2019. It went poorly, with Pittsburgh losing 33-3 on Sunday Night Football. Watt detailed his experience wearing the green dot on Cameron Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast.
“I didn’t realize how singularly focused I was in football until I got the green dot, and how much phlegm you have to have in your mouth to actually talk,” Watt said. “I got [Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler] calling in a play, in his accent and he’s like ‘tell so-and-so to stay outside’ and I have no phlegm in my mouth so I’m just signaling calls with my hands because I don’t wanna talk.
“It was a whole nightmare, so that’s my story. Never again. It was miserable.”
Watt still managed three quarterback hits and two tackles, one for a loss, against New England, but it wasn’t his typical dominant performance. To be fair, no one played well that night.
The green dot traditionally goes to an off-ball linebacker, but with rookie LB Devin Bush and LB Mark Barron new to the team, the coaches decided to give it to Watt. That experiment ended after just one game, one in which both sides of the ball struggled to do much of anything in a blowout loss.
Wearing the dot isn’t an easy responsibility, as whoever is wearing it has to keep track of what they’re supposed to do and their assignment and also make sure they’re clear about everyone else’s assignment. For Watt, that and needing to have mucus to actually talk in the heat of the game proved to be a lot, with him saying how singularly focused he is.
It’s better to let Watt just play his game and not worry about needing to do more. He’s an All-Pro player, and I think the Steelers learned it’s best to just let him worry about himself. Barron got the dot for the rest of the 2019 season.
This year, Cole Holcomb will wear the green dot, something he also did during his time with the Washington Commanders. Watt can focus on rushing the passer and helping the Steelers get back among the league leaders in sacks after they fell a little bit thanks to Watt’s injury last year. With a fully healthy Watt alongside Alex Highsmith and Heyward, along with improved depth at outside linebacker, the Steelers should again push for 50-plus sacks. That’s a lot better than Watt calling plays and his game suffering as a result.
But the idea of giving Watt the green dot was worth at least experimenting with. While it ultimately turned out poorly, he’s a smart player and it could’ve helped with an inexperienced off-ball linebacker group in Pittsburgh in 2019. But it was a good lesson learned that it wasn’t something to keep trying albeit the hard way.
