It was a quiet performance from star outside linebacker T.J. Watt in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 27-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
Watt had just two tackles and two pressures and was largely negated by the Colts’ plans in pass protection, chipping him often, keeping a tight end in to help, and more.
Coming out of the loss to the Colts coupled with Watt’s quiet day, questions are arising regarding the Steelers potentially needing to move Watt around the defensive front in search of mismatches to let him.
While Watt is supposedly not opposed to moving around, that’s not something that the Steelers plan on doing anytime soon, coordinator Teryl Austin said.
“Yeah, there’s always conversations about what we can do to help get him in the best matchups and do some different things, but I think overall he might have a game or so like he did last week where the guys really just try to really do a good job of keeping him at bay,” Austin said, according to the official transcript provided by the team. “More often than not he is going to win his fair share, so we like where he is. He feels comfortable where he is. But he is not opposed to moving around.
“He moved around in that game one time and rushed from the other side. So we’ll do it occasionally, but that’s not something we’re going to do because is he so proficient at rushing from that left side.”
To say Watt is proficient rushing from the left side of the Steelers’ defense is a massive understatement. Rushing from that position, Watt has become the best and most impactful pass rusher in football, period.
He’s a game-wrecker, one teams are very worried about. That’s been clear week after week for years. Sometimes the plans opposing teams have for Watt don’t work, like in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons.
Other times, they work like last Sunday against the Colts.
It’ll happen. That’s football. But it’s not a reason for the Steelers to change up their philosophy and start moving Watt around to search for mismatches and to get him away from potential chips and things like that.
As Austin said, Watt did rush from another position once, lining up at right outside linebacker for one snap. Last season, Watt lined up on the right side of the defense just eight times and was in the box as an off-ball linebacker 13 times. It’s something the Steelers can do with Watt, but not something they’re going to do consistently.
It’s just not their philosophy. Nor should it be. Watt is Watt because of what he does rushing off the left side of the defense. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
