While accepting his AFC Defensive Player of the Year honor at the 101 Awards last night in Kansas City, Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt offered some thoughts on the moves the Steelers have made this offseason. In a video posted to Twitter by PJ Green of Fox 4 Kansas City, Watt addressed the Steelers’ offseason moves, talked about his excitement to play with Russell Wilson and how hard it is to compete in the AFC.
“I’m excited for both of them, gonna be a lot of new faces, gonna have some big time new faces, some guys that have played at a high level, especially Russ, a guy that’s won a Super Bowl in the locker room, I’m just hoping I can learn something from those guys and hopefully show them how things are done in Pittsburgh as well. But what we’ve been doing, I haven’t won a playoff game since my whole career there, so I’m open to any type of information where we can continue to get better and hopefully those guys can help us do that,” Watt said.
Watt also talked about the difficulties competing in the AFC with the high level of quarterback play, saying he’s “glad” the Steelers have a quarterback of Wilson’s caliber.
“It’s tough. It’s very tough, competitive league, so much parity even just in our division, look at all the quarterbacks, I’m just glad that we have one.”
The Steelers quarterback room with Wilson and Justin Fields is a lot better than it was at the end of 2023, and Wilson’s experience and talent should give the Steelers a better chance to win than they had with Kenny Pickett. Watt was drafted in 2017, and as he said, has yet to win a playoff game in Pittsburgh. For such an accomplished player, that sticks out on his resume, and frankly, it’s not really his fault. The Steelers have struggled on offense for years and just haven’t been talented enough overall to win when it matters.
Watt did miss Pittsburgh’s Wild Card Round loss with an injury this past season, and if he played, maybe the result would be different. But the turnovers by the offense likely would’ve kept the results the same, and the goal is that the upgrade with Wilson at quarterback along with the signing of Patrick Queen on defense can help snap Pittsburgh’s playoff win drought.
The Steelers need to win in the playoffs soon to help some of their players, like Watt and Cameron Heyward, enhance their legacy. Neither of them have played in a Super Bowl and have just one playoff win between the two. While this offseason has been uncharacteristic in how the Steelers operate, it’s because of the urgency to finally start winning and the frustration of being a laughingstock in recent years whenever January rolls around.
We’ll see if the moves work out, but Watt certainly seems excited about the prospect of learning from someone who’s won a Super Bowl in Wilson and helping him acclimate to the culture of Pittsburgh and the Steelers.
