Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers know they will have a playoff game to play, the next question is who will be on the field. The quarterback question looms, the anticipated answer being Mason Rudolph, but what about their potential NFL Defensive Player of the Year?
As he was wrapping up his NFL-record third season leading the league in sacks, OLB T.J. Watt suffered a Grade 2 MCL injury that could sideline him for multiple weeks but will not require surgery. There is a non-zero chance that he could potentially suit up Sunday in Buffalo, but for how many sacks, and how effectively?
More than ever, the Steelers will have to rely upon their work in the offseason to bolster their depth. They drafted Nick Herbig in the fourth round and added Markus Golden as a veteran free agent, an experienced starter in his own right. They will be the ones who must step up to the plate.
“We don’t know what’s going on with him yet, but you can’t replace a guy like T.J. Watt”, Golden said after Saturday’s game, via Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He’s the greatest defensive player in the NFL right now. We hope he’s all right. We just have to wait and see. Me and Nick have been working hard all year, but we want him out there with us”.
Golden ended up playing 21 snaps in the game, largely after Watt’s exit. He recorded three tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, two quarterback hits, and a fumble recovery. Herbig was also on the field for 13 snaps but did not register a defensive statistic.
He did record a strip-sack a week earlier, recovering the fumble himself, on one of the two defensive snaps that he did get. The defensive opportunities for the Steelers’ reserve pass rushers have been limited at times—Golden was even a healthy scratch for one game—but they have missed few chances to capitalize.
In 421 combined snaps between the two of them, Golden and Herbig have produced seven sacks, 13 hits, 47 tackles (including Herbig’s tackles on special teams), 11 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and a pass defensed.
That’s not bad production given about half a season’s worth of work for a single starter. Alex Highsmith, for comparison, played 910 snaps while producing the same number of sacks, five more hits, and the same number of forced fumbles, though he also had two interceptions and scored a touchdown.
That’s not to diminish how Highsmith has played this season at all. Indeed, he played just as well this year, arguably, as he did last season when he had more than twice the number of sacks. If anything, it’s a credit to the Steelers’ depth.
And they will need it, given their track record. The Steelers are 1-10 in games in which Watt does not play since his rookie season in 2017, as you’ve probably heard. He managed to play all 17 games this regular season, but odds are good he will miss the playoff game next week, or at least be quite limited if he is able to suit up.
