T.J. Watt is in the middle of another strong season for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Through 10 games, he has 11.5 sacks, which is on pace for 19.5 sacks across the full 17-game schedule. He took sole possession of the Steelers’ franchise sack record back in Week Two and continues to add to his lead. It’s more than just franchise records that he is making his mark on. Watt has 89 sacks through his first 97 games, which is second place all-time in number of sacks in a player’s first 100 games. Reggie White leads the list with 105, and in third is a tie between J.J. Watt and Myles Garrett.
J.J. Watt appeared on the Pat McAfee Show on ESPN Wednesday afternoon and was asked how he thinks his brother, T.J., will finish the season.
“I think he’s gonna finish this year extremely strongly,” J.J. said. “I obviously talk to him often and I’ve been through it quite a bit. It’s hilarious that like he has one sack and people wanna consider it a down game, or he has a stretch of three games where he only has three sacks and people are like, what’s going on? It is just incredible, and that’s a testament to the standard that you set and where you wanna be.”
Teams obviously game plan for Watt heavily, and he has the benefit of having an excellent pass rusher opposite him in Alex Highsmith, but he is on pace for a nearly 20-sack season. It’s hard to call that a down season. That being said, Watt started off the 2023 season on a ridiculous pace. He had six sacks in the first three games, eight in the first five. Since then, just 3.5 in the last five games.
Part of the issue is teams gameplanning around Watt. Lately, many teams have been either running the ball heavily or getting the ball out extremely fast in the passing game. T.J. himself said after the Week 11 loss to the Browns that the defense was having issues stopping the five-yard throws where the ball is getting out in roughly two seconds. It’s hard to impact the game as a pass rusher under those circumstances. The sack numbers are only part of being a pass rusher, as Watt still leads the league in quarterback pressures with 33, tied with Detroit Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson.
“If you want to consider this a lull, to me, that’s great because I think that he only is gonna come out of it even stronger…the kid’s playing good football and he’s gonna dominate and he has for a while” J.J. Watt said. “So, I foresee a very, very strong finish to this season.”
Watt has had 24 multi-sack games in his career, including three this season. He has demonstrated time and time again that he can generate sacks in bunches, so don’t be surprised if he surpasses the 19.5-sack pace that he is currently on.
