As their impressive seasons continue through the third quarter of the season, Pittsburgh Steelers’ star defensive end Cameron Heyward and outside linebacker T.J. Watt continue to push for All-Pro accolades.
Heyward finds himself on pace for a new career-high in pressures, while Watt leads the league in forced fumbles and remains one of the best all-around EDGE defenders in football.
Knowing that, it’s no surprise to see both Heyward and Watt on Pro Football Focus’s third-quarter All-Pro team, which dropped earlier in the week.
Heyward and Watt were the only Steelers to be represented on the All-Pro team, but they are the most deserving and lead the way on the defensive front of the All-Pro team from PFF.
Watt was joined by Cleveland’s Myles Garrett in the EDGE category, while Heyward was joined by Kansas City’s Chris Jones as interior defenders.
“The highest-graded interior defender in the NFL through 13 weeks, Heyward has turned back the clock with an incredible season to date,” PFF’s Gordon McGuinness writes of Heyward. “He has earned a 90.0 PFF pass-rushing grade, racking up 43 total pressure with 19 combined sacks and quarterback hits.”
What Heyward has done this season is quite remarkable. At age 35 at a physically demanding position in the trenches, Heyward has turned the clock back and is playing some of his best football. If you wanted to make the case for him playing his best football of his distinguished career, you certainly could and would have plenty of talking points to do so.
On the year, Heyward has 42 QB pressures and is on pace to easily surpass the most he’s had in a season, which was 62 in 2017 and 2020. He currently has his best pass rush grade of his career, too, from Pro Football Focus at 90.0. He had a pivotal sack In Week 13 against the Bengals, too, using his patented bull rush to knock Bengals LG Cody Ford off balance and run right into Bengals QB Joe Burrow.
It’s not just the work in the passing game that is impressive for Heyward, either. He remains a dominant run defender, one who can’t be moved off the spot. He has 29 run stops on the season and continues to tie up blockers and control the line of scrimmage.
PFF even recently tried to make the case for Heyward being the Defensive Player of the Year. That seems like a bit of a stretch considering he’s an interior defender and has just 6.0 sacks on the season. But he’s having a remarkable year, period.
Then, there’s Watt. He’s a master at knocking the ball out, creating turnovers for the Steelers, and more often than not is finding a way to impact games, even with opposing offenses scheming against him.
“With just 34 total pressures so far this season, Watt ranks just tied for 34th among edge defenders through 13 weeks,” McGuiness writes of Watt. “Still, he slots fourth among all edge defenders with an 88.8 PFF pass-rushing grade, and his 92.2 PFF run-defense mark is the best among all edge defenders.”
The total pressures and the sacks aren’t there for Watt compared to previous seasons, and that’s largely due to how teams are scheming up ways to defend him, using chips from tight ends, receivers and running backs, double teams, and even sliding the offensive line to him in pass protection.
While he’s not getting to the QB as often as he has in the past, Watt is still finding ways to impact games, punching the football out on running backs, creating forced fumbles leading to turnovers. And then, when he does get to the quarterback, he’s knocking the football out as well and creating splash plays.
He might not have the sack and pressure numbers as others at the EDGE category, but nobody comes close to impacting games overall like Watt does. That has to count for something once the end-of-year All-Pro honors are decided.
