In the first four weeks of the season, no pass rusher has really come close to making the type of impact that Pittsburgh Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt has.
So far, Watt sits second in the NFL in sacks with 6.0, one behind Los Angeles’ Khalil Mack, who had six sacks in one game. Watt is second in quarterback hits with seven behind San Francisco’s Nick Bosa, and he’s third in total pressures with 22 on the season. He also has a defensive touchdown to his credit and has been a wrecking ball for the Steelers defense in the first four weeks.
Knowing all of that, it’s not at all a surprise that Watt is considered a front-runner for the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year award. What is surprising though is that ESPN’s Bill Barnwell not only calls him the league’s “most productive pass rusher,” he has him at No. 2 in his quarter-mark awards behind Dallas’ Micah Parsons.
“Even amid a frustrating 2-2 start to the season for the Steelers, Watt continues to play at a superstar level. As mentioned above, he is tied for the league lead in both sacks and quarterback knockdowns,” Barnwell writes regarding Watt, making the case for him as the No. 2 option in the DPOY race so far, according to ESPN.com. “Pittsburgh might very well be 0-4 without him; Watt’s fumble return for a score was the game winner against the Browns in Week 2, while he had two sacks and a staggering 11 initial pressures in the Week 3 victory over the Raiders. The latter figure is tied with three other players for the season high in any single game, including Khalil Mack’s six-sack performance against Vegas last Sunday.
“By some measures, Watt has been the league’s most productive pass-rusher. He would be a reasonable pick for this award. The more I looked into the data, though, the case became even clearer for the guy just ahead of him.”
Since entering the 2023 season, Watt has been on a mission. After dealing with a partially torn pectoral muscle last season that kept him out of seven games and then dealing with a rib injury that limited him for a few more, Watt got healthy in the offseason and came out on fire. He had three sacks in the 30-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week One, forcing two fumbles in the process.
In Week Two against the Cleveland Browns, Watt had a sack and the game-winning fumble return for a touchdown. In Week Three, Watt had two sacks and 11 pressures, dominating against the Raiders, which led to him winning the AFC’s Defensive Player of the Month for September.
Though he was uncharacteristically quiet against the Houston Texans in Week Four, Watt remains a force, one that defenses must account for on every single snap.
Parsons might have more pressures and be a better athlete and have more national exposure due to the Cowboys’ brand, but nobody can hold up against Watt’s overall body of work so far when it comes to the DPOY race.
It’s good that Barnwell included him in the top three with Parsons and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, but Watt belongs at No. 1 so far, period.
