Pittsburgh Steelers OLB T.J. Watt has become the master of the punch out to force a fumble, learning the “Peanut Punch” made famous by Charles Tillman from Tim Tibesar, his linebackers coach at Wisconsin. But Watt didn’t get a chance to perfect or work on the moves in practice early in his Steelers tenure. He told ESPN’s Hannah Storm on Sunday NFL Countdown that he was told by the team he couldn’t punch out the team’s star players, specifically Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown
“When I got to the NFL, it was funny, the first couple years of practice, I was doing it rookie minicamp, and they were like, that’s great, but when Le’Veon [Bell] and AB [Antonio Brown] and those guys get there, you’re not allowed to punch those guys. So I kind of stopped doing it a little bit, and the older I got, the more I started doing it again in practice, and we put an emphasis on it,” Watt said.
While the Steelers are one of the teams that embrace tackling at practice, they didn’t want Watt punching out their best players. While there’s probably an enhanced injury risk with Watt trying to punch out in practice rather than just wrap up and tackle, it was likely done more to prevent friction and tension between two of the team’s star players and a rookie trying to establish himself.
It would’ve likely annoyed Bell or Brown, two established stars by the time Watt was drafted, to have him come and make a habit of forcing fumbles on them in practice. But as Watt got older and more established, he was able to do it without fear of pushback from his teammates, and it became a coaching point for the Steelers.
It’s a little bit dumb not to have Watt work on and do something he’s really good at and something that could make a difference in-game in live practice settings, but avoiding conflict and keeping team chemistry high is important to winning. As we saw with Bell and especially Brown toward the end of his Steelers tenure and his post-Steelers career, managing their egos was important, and it’s something Mike Tomlin did a great job of.
Eventually, Watt became a star player and had free reign to do what he wanted in practice. The increased emphasis on punch-outs and forcing fumbles has benefited Watt and the entire Steelers team, as he already has 32 forced fumbles in his career, including five this season. Going forward, no one is going to tell Watt that he can’t punch someone out, no matter who it is.
