The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: Will T.J. Watt break the Steelers’ all-time sack record today?
T.J. Watt enters tonight’s game against the Cleveland Browns with 80.5 career sacks. While that doesn’t even crack the all-time top-75 list, it is tied for the most recorded by a Steeler in team history. He recorded three last week to tie James Harrison.
His performance against San Francisco 49ers RT Colton McKivitz may have made it look like a given, but you can never take sacks for granted. Even during his 22.5-sack season in 2021, Watt had four games in which he didn’t even record half a sack in 15 games played.
The Cleveland Browns will be starting rookie fourth-round draft pick Dawand Jones at right tackle after Jack Conklin suffered a season-ending injury a week ago. This will be his first NFL start, but he has gotten positive reviews, particularly for his work in pass protection, throughout the offseason.
On top of that, he has been working against players like Myles Garrett and Za’Darius Smith throughout the offseason, so it’s not as though he lacks familiarity with what it’s like to line up against top-flight pass rushers.
There will be games this year where Watt doesn’t record a sack, believe it or not. This could be one of them. Of course, there’s no way of knowing that until the game unfolds, but my guess is that almost everybody is going to agree that he will claim the record today. He only needs half a sack, anyway, so as long as he pitches in on a clean-up effort, he will get what he needs.
