We are reaching the halfway point of the 2023 season as some teams are beginning to know their postseason fate. The Arizona Cardinals are well out of the playoff hunt while the Kansas City Chiefs look to be well on their way to yet another AFC Championship Game.
There there’s the Pittsburgh Steelers, who sit at 5-3 and could go either direction. It hasn’t been pretty getting to two games above .500 as Pittsburgh has won plenty of games close on the back of a late score by QB Kenny Pickett or a splash play from its defense. One player provides more splash that all the others on the defensive side of the football as OLB T.J. Watt is in the midst of yet another Defensive Player of the Year-worthy campaign. The staff members at the 33rd Team thinks so as well, having selected Watt as their midseason DPOY in their 2023 midseason awards.
“When the Pittsburgh Steelers have needed impact plays, they’ve typically come from edge rusher T.J. Watt,” the 33rd Team wrote. ”They have the worst offense in the NFL but a 5-3 record,’ [Dave] Wannstedt said. ‘He makes a difference in every game and individually has won two games.’ Watt is tied with Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby with 9.5 sacks, second in the league behind Danielle Hunter. The difference is Watt has the most combined sacks and quarterback hits (19) and is tied for the NFL lead with three fumble recoveries. He’s also forced two fumbles. ‘He does it all,’ [Chuck] Pagano said. ‘He sets the edge in the run game. He’s the best edge rusher in the NFL. And he can play in coverage when needed.'”
Watt received five votes from a voter’s pool that included former NFL executive Mike Tannenbaum; former NFL coaches Jay Gruden, Marvin Lewis, Mike Martz, Chuck Pagano and Dave Wannstedt; Hall of Fame cornerback Ronde Barber; NFL MVP Rich Gannon; owner and president of ProScout Inc Mike Giddings; and The 33rd Team’s NFL Insider Ari Meirov. Browns DE Myles Garrett came in second place with three votes with Raiders DE Maxx Crosby and 49ers LB Fred Warner each receiving one.
Watt started the season on fire, posting six sacks in his first three games. Since then, the sack totals have slowed down as Watt has posted 3.5 in his last five games, but he’s still been a dominant force in all facets of the game. He’s racked up 22 total stops, eight tackles for loss, 18 QB hits, two forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries (one returned for a touchdown), six pass breakups, and an interception. Watt has continually made splash plays for the Steelers in crucial moments, getting a key interception coming out of the half against the Los Angeles Rams while recovering a strip sack fumble caused by teammate OLB Alex Highsmith against the Cleveland Browns and taking it to the house to put Pittsburgh on top in the fourth quarter.
Watt is a certified one-man wrecking crew. Guys like Garrett, Crosby, and Warner listed above are also more than deserving of the award, but Watt impacts the game in so many different ways, being a capable pass rusher, run defender, and coverage linebacker when asked to do so. The former NFL personalities of the 33rd Team recognize that, seeing a defender who can excel in nearly any situation as he keeps Pittsburgh afloat thanks to his impact on games.
We saw last season how valuable Watt is when he missed seven games due to a pec injury, watching Pittsburgh slip to 2-6 while he was sidelined. However, the Steelers went 7-2 down the stretch when Watt returned after the bye, and currently sit at 5-3 despite ranking near the bottom of the league in several offensive and defensive metrics. Watt is Pittsburgh’s most valuable player, bar none. If you take every team’s best defensive player and compare it to what losing Watt would mean for the Steelers, it’d be hard to find a player that would have a similar impact than what Watt is having right now.
