T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward have rare NFL resumes. All-Pros, Pro Bowls, historic regular seasons. Two of the best and most dominant players of their era, there’s little question over the types of players they are. But both share the equally poor fortune of a complete lack of playoff success. Combined, one playoff win they’ve personally been apart of. Watt has more DPOY awards than he does postseason victories. It’s led Stephen A. Smith to wonder how much longer Watt can take without feeling what a playoff run is like.
“Since 2016, you haven’t won a playoff game,” Smith said on First Take Monday. “One-and-done at least five or six times. They’re 0-5 in playoff games since seven-time Pro Bowler T.J. Watt joined the team. He’s played in four or five of those games, they’ve lost all of them. How long you going to keep T.J. Watt if you keep losing? If you’re not making any noise in the postseason.”
Not only have the Steelers failed to win a playoff game with Watt, their defense has repeatedly struggled in those games. Saturday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens was the latest example, and while Pittsburgh held them to under 30 points, something they’ve failed to achieve in other playoff losses, it was arguably the defense’s poorest showing. Baltimore chewed them up for 299 rushing yards, most-ever against the Steelers in a playoff game, with Pittsburgh having little answer for QB Lamar Jackson and RB Derrick Henry.
Jackson was clean in the pocket nearly the entire night, sacked just once and often having forever in the pocket to run around and wait for something to come up. His touchdown to RB Justice Hill was a great example, the rush stuck on blocks without an interior push as Jackson climbed and calmly found a wide-open Hill to go up 21-0 at the break.
Watt is currently entering the final year of his contract extension. If he’s truly frustrated by the team’s lack of playoff success, and he’s lamented being unable to add to team legacy, perhaps he’s less inclined to get a new deal done this summer. Maybe he takes a wait-and-see approach to how Pittsburgh rebuilds their roster and if they can put together the winning formula they’ve failed to find throughout his tenure.
Of course, if that was the path Watt took, the Steelers would still have team control with the franchise tag. Still, the perception of Pittsburgh as perennial contenders has to be changing. No longer can they rest on the laurels of recent history. Their last Super Bowl appearance was 2010, their last win in 2008. No one on the roster has been drafted and gone to a Super Bowl in Pittsburgh.
If the Steelers are going to be seen differently, then players will start acting accordingly. Perhaps it won’t be Watt but others debating if they should stay or leave Pittsburgh for playoff success more easily obtained elsewhere.
