Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt officially tied the NFL single-season sack record in 2021, reaching 22.5 on the season. You can make a case that he should actually already hold the record, but that argument won’t get you anywhere. No, if he wants to break that record, he will have to hit at least 23 at some point.
Given his trajectory, though, Watt is a threat to break the record any time he plays, provided he is healthy. He led the NFL in sacks in each of the last three years in which he remained healthy, including 2023. He is already in rare company with two seasons of 19-plus sacks, but he won’t stop there.
As far as setting the record, though, he isn’t looking to make it anything special. Appearing on Up & Adams on Saturday, Kay Adams asked T.J. Watt who, in an ideal world, he would take down for his 23rd sack.
“That’s tough because I can’t say ‘the next one’. Hopefully, it’s a divisional quarterback. I’ll just say that”, Watt said. Pressed further, he added, “Anyone from Cleveland, Baltimore, or Cincinnati”.
Of course, there is a pretty good chance of that happening, and not just because Watt plays against the division six times a year. Of his 96.5 career sacks, he has 17 against the Browns, 12 against the Bengals, and 16 against the Ravens.
That is 45 sacks, or 46.6 percent of his career total, in 39 games. Watt has played in 104 games during his career, but his divisional opponents account for 37.5 percent. In other words, he clearly sacks divisional quarterbacks at a higher rate than non-divisional ones.
And let’s face it, the 2024 season is the ideal opportunity for T.J. Watt to achieve this feat. He is still at the height of his abilities, and the Steelers play all of their divisional opponents at the end of the year. If he doesn’t get 23 in Week 16 against the Ravens, he can close the season against the Bengals.
Despite all of his success, Watt somehow manages to rank lower than you would expect. We all know his numerous upsets during Defensive Player of the Year voting, winning only once. He even ranked only eighth in the NFL’s Top 100 this year, behind Myles Garrett.
I’m not sure how much T.J. Watt cares about the record, though. A part of him probably believes that the record already belongs to him, even if not officially. He did admit that he occasionally challenges the NFL on stats, so he does care to some degree.
One thing nobody can reasonably challenge is the fact that Watt is on a trajectory for the Hall of Fame. He is unarguably one of the greatest football players today at any position—eighth overall still isn’t bad, you know. There will always be a bigger, stronger, faster edge rusher out there, but Watt is the one who always produces.
