The Pittsburgh Steelers are the only team in the AFC North that won in Week 1, and part of that is because of T.J. Watt. Watt looked like he hasn’t missed a beat since last year, throttling the Atlanta Falcons’ offense. Former All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman seemed incredibly impressed with Watt.
“T.J. Watt may be named DPOY by Week 8,” Sherman tweeted Sunday. “They negated about three of his sack forced fumbles and he still seals the game with a sack! Just putting a wrench in my preseason predictions.”
Sherman was part of one of the best defenses of all time when he was a member of the Seattle Seahawks. He’s seen his fair share of amazing defenders, and Watt is still leaving him blown away. If Watt wants to win another Defensive Player of the Year award, he certainly had a good start to that campaign in Atlanta.
Watt was so good that the only thing that could stop him was the officials. He finished the game with one sack and one fumble recovery, but it should’ve been much more. He had one strip-sack rightfully taken away due to a penalty in the secondary, but he also had a sack and a forced fumble taken away on a bogus neutral-zone infraction.
That play looked close at the time, and Watt even said that an official apologized to him because they were in the wrong. If not for those issues that weren’t Watt’s fault, his stat line would have been even more impressive. Instead, he just recovered a fumble by the Falcons and had the game-sealing sack. Still a great day, but for Watt, that’s normal.
Falcons head coach Raheem Morris didn’t want Watt to wreck the game, but in the end, he did. The Steelers’ offense started slow once again, but Watt and the defense were on fire. Their work as a unit willed the Steelers to victory.
If Watt continues to dominate like that, he will have a case to win DPOY this year. That is, unless the voters decide they like another player’s advanced statistics more. This week proved that Watt isn’t going to slow down this year, and as long as he stays healthy, he should be able to once again make the case that he is the best defender in the NFL.
