Having spent 10 seasons in the NFL around some Hall of Fame talent with the San Francisco 49ers on the defensive side of the football, former linebacker and current interim New York Jets’ head coach Jeff Ulbrich knows great talent when he sees it, especially defensively.
That’s exactly what he sees with Pittsburgh Steelers star outside linebacker T.J. Watt ahead of the Week 7 Sunday Night Football matchup between the two teams.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday ahead of practice, Ulbrich called Watt a “generational talent” and said that the Jets will need to account for him on every single play to avoid him wrecking the game.
“Yeah, again, it goes back to moving the target. You know, sometimes chipping him, sometimes sifting him, sometimes cutting him and just keeping him off balance,” Ulbrich said of Watt, according to video via the Jets’ YouTube page. “He’s a game-breaker as we all know. He’s one of the best players, one of the best defensive players in this league, and he is a generational talent. So, you gotta account for him every single play.”
It’s easier said than done trying to keep Watt off balance with chips, cuts and creating additional traffic for him to navigate as a pass rusher. Even when he’s not affecting the game as a pass rusher, he’s a dominant run defender and showed that again Sunday against the Raiders.
Watt earned a 99.0 run defense grade against the Raiders from Pro Football Focus, forcing two fumbles in the process. One of those came at the goal line on Ameer Abdullah, which changed the game entirely for the Steelers.
That’s who he is and what he does time and time again. He’s always good for some big plays throughout games, even with all of the attention put on him by opponents.
Knowing that, the Jets will have a plan for him, just like others have had in the past. That plan doesn’t always work as Watt has shown he doesn’t need to just be a pass rusher to impact the game. Ulbrich undoubtedly knows that, having been a former NFL linebacker and a defensive coordinator the last five years in the NFL.
There’s no denying Watt is a generational talent, one who is on a Hall of Fame trajectory. That’s largely been the case since he came into the NFL out of Wisconsin with his lineage, going on a run immediately and becoming that next great Steelers defender in a long line of them.
