The debate regarding who the best EDGE rusher between Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett will continue to rage as long as the two remain at the height of their NFL powers.
ESPN tried to put an end to that argument — at least for now — on Wednesday morning with the release of its top-10 EDGE survey from NFL executives, coaches and players.
In that survey, Garrett landed at No. 1 overall with Watt right behind him at No. 2, which was how things ended up in the 2023 NFL Defensive Player of the Year voting, too, though that was largely flawed.
Though he landed at No. 2, Watt was called “the Aaron Donald of pass rushers” by one voter. He even moved up two spots from last season’s rankings in the summer survey coming off a dominant season that saw him lead the NFL with 19 sacks, becoming the first player ever to lead the league in sacks in three different seasons.
“Watt didn’t quite match that feat, but he’s back where he belongs — in the conversation at the top. An injury-riddled 2022 campaign dropped him to fourth on last year’s list. His game-wrecking ways were on full display in 2023, leading the NFL with 19 sacks and finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting,” ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler writes regarding Watt in the top 10 survey for ESPN.com. “Watt has earned four All-Pro first team nods over the past five seasons, and his 96.5 sacks through his first seven years ranks third all time behind Reggie White (110) and DeMarcus Ware (99.5).”
Outside of an injury-riddled season in 2022 that caused him to miss a number of games and limited his production while recovering from a partially torn pectoral muscle, Watt deserves to be in the conversation for the best EDGE defender in football, period.
CBS Sports ranked Watt as the NFL’s best EDGE defender on Tuesday, which wasn’t a surprise. That’s where he belongs. But as long as he’s in the top-three discussion among Garrett and Dallas’ Micah Parsons, it doesn’t really matter. All are incredible at what they do and have different strengths to their games.
Though he’s not the flashiest player and certainly doesn’t look like he came out of a comic book, Watt truly is a superstar and one of the faces of the NFL. His 2023 season was remarkable. He broke the Steelers’ all-time sacks record, recorded the second-most sacks in NFL history in his first 100 games behind only Reggie White, and at the end of the season put him closer and closer to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“He can’t be labeled a high-motor guy — he’s just exceptionally hard to block, probably the hardest in the league,” a high-ranking NFL official said in the ESPN.com survey. “He has technique, power, counters, violence, bend. Everything you want.”
He was healthy and on the field all season and dominated each and every week. The star outside linebacker had at least at least one sack in 13 of 17 games on the year. He was a force against the run, too, added an interception and scored a defensive touchdown on a fumble return, helping the Steelers win an early-season game against the Cleveland Browns.
Despite his dominance, he lost out on the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award last year to Garrett, which wasn’t shocking based on the narrative that was out there early on in the season about Garrett and never slowed down. Pass-rush win rate was the deciding factor, not the actual stats that Watt compiled, blowing past Garrett in every category.
What Watt did win though was the Steelers’ MVP award, becoming the second Steelers to ever win the award four times, joining former receiver Antonio Brown.
Losing the DPOY to Garrett is something that Watt took personally, skipping out on the NFL Honors show in the process. That should be plenty of motivation for Watt to come back even better in 2024 in his age-30 season, which could help him chase his second DPOY in what could be another monster year for arguably the best pass rusher in football.
Outside of Watt, teammate Alex Highsmith didn’t crack the top 10 or even the honorable mention list at outside linebacker, instead landing in the “also received votes” portion of the survey.
EDGE is a loaded position in today’s NFL, but Highsmith should have garnered more attention in the survey than just receiving a few votes. Highsmith was among the top 15 highest-graded pass rushers in football last season from Pro Football Focus, and has been consistently highlighted this summer as one of the top 15-20 EDGE defenders in football.
Not to mention, Watt and Highsmith have been in the discussion as the best EDGE duo in football. That’s not just because of Watt. Highsmith has developed into a force against both the run and the pass and is in line for another huge step forward in 2024.
Should he do that, expect the former third-round pick to vault up the rankings in the survey next summer.
