Heading into 2023, Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt is knocking on the door of a couple of sacks milestones.
Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports recently published an article highlighting milestones that could be reached this season by numerous players. When it comes to Watt, Kerr noted that he is in line to surpass several of the greats regarding how fast he has climbed up the sack ladder in his NFL career.
“[Watt] needs 8.5 sacks to surpass Aaron Donald (85.5) for the third most by a player in his first seven NFL seasons since 1982,” Kerr wrote for CBS Sports. “Only Reggie White (110) and DeMarcus Ware (99.5) have more. Watt has 77.5 sacks in six seasons.
Donald was drafted in 2014 by the St. Louis Rams before the team moved to Los Angeles and has become arguably the best defensive player in football. Donald has redefined the interior defensive line position, posting multiple seasons with double-digit sacks, including a 2018 campaign where he notched 20.5 sacks, winning his second Defensive Player of the Year award.
Watt should be able to surpass Donald in 2023, needing only 8.5 more sacks than the former Pitt star, which should be an easy task, barring health. For Watt to get to second place on the list of most sacks within seven NFL seasons, he would have to tie or break his sack record to overtake Ware for that spot. It’s a tall task, but Watt is more than capable knowing the type of player that he is and how he can take games over, recording three-plus sacks in a single contest.
Watt is also on pace to surpass his older brother in the sack department, recording more sacks than J.J. Watt in his first 100 regular-season games.
“[Watt] needs 10.5 sacks within his first 13 games to surpass J.J. Watt (87.5) for the second most by a player in his first 100 NFL games since 1982, Kerr said “Only Reggie White (105) has more. Watt has 77.5 sacks in 87 NFL games.”
Ten-and-a-half sacks in 13 games seems reasonable since Watt seems to average nearly a sack a game. The big thing that Watt will have to handle is staying healthy throughout the 2023 campaign to have an opportunity to match and surpass these milestones. He missed seven games last year in due to a pec injury and missed two full games and parts of others in 2021 with various injuries, but still managed to tie the single-season sack record.
Watt has a chance to return to his Defensive Player of the Year form in 2023 if he can stay on the field. Surpassing his brother for the most sacks in his first 100 NFL games would be quite an accomplishment as well as posting more sacks in his first seven games than both Donald and Ware. Pittsburgh has added more EDGE depth this offseason, potentially eating into Watt’s snap counts on a weekly basis. However, this could play in Watt’s favor as he can stay fresh, be more productive on passing downs, and not wear down so quickly, hopefully increasing the odds he can stay healthy for a full 17 games.
