Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt suffered an ankle injury in Week 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles, and while he didn’t miss time, it caused him to be limited in practice ahead of the team’s Week 16 game. During the team’s Week 17 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, sideline reporter Melanie Collins reported that Watt has been dealing with a right thumb injury too. His brother, J.J., who’s one of the analysts for the Netflix broadcast, said the thumb injury has been more bothersome for him than the ankle was.
“He honestly said that one bothered him more than the ankle,” J.J. Watt said about T.J. on the broadcast.
T.J. is still the favorite to win the AP Defensive Player of the Year award despite battling a thumb injury, but those types of injuries can be especially cumbersome for an EDGE rusher. His hands are important for him to get leverage and make moves against an offensive tackle. It’s something that can affect him on every play and throughout the game.
It hasn’t seemed to affect his production much, which is obviously a good sign for the Steelers. It’s not something that’s been severe enough to cause him to miss much practice time, as outside the ankle the only practice time that Watt’s missed has been due to veteran rest days.
Hopefully, it’s not an injury that continues to get worse as the Steelers look to make a playoff run. If it was something that the Steelers feared could get worse, they likely wouldn’t push him late in the season with a playoff berth already locked up. The Steelers have good depth at EDGE with Nick Herbig, Preston Smith and Jeremiah Moon behind Watt and Alex Highsmith, but Watt is the team’s best player and essential to their success, so if there’s no need to take him off the field, they won’t.
Watt has two tackles and one for a loss against Kansas City so far today, and the Steelers are going to need him to get going against a Chiefs team that has had its struggles along the offensive line this season. It would also be a cool moment if Watt was able to make a big play on Christmas Day with his brother on the broadcast. A big game from him could help the Steelers’ hopes of clinching the AFC North, which they can do if they win today against the Chiefs and in Week 18 against the Bengals.
