Following the 2024 season, the national NFL media was down on Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt. The former Defensive Player of the Year saw his DPOY odds crumble down the stretch after going quiet in December, and he finished the season with just 11.5 sacks. But the latest edge rusher rankings prove that the media just doesn't get it.
When ESPN asked 70 NFL executives, coaches, and scouts to rank their top edge rushers entering the 2025 season, Watt was anything but disrespected. Even though he turns 31 years old early in the year and seemed to have fallen out of favor with the media, execs, coaches, and scouts ranked him as the No. 2 edge rusher in the NFL.
"He's still the gold standard for me," one veteran AFC defensive coach said of Watt. "He completely wrecks a game and he can do everything."
Unsurprisingly, the only player ranked higher was his long-time AFC North rival, Myles Garrett. Garrett, the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year, is coming off another impressive season as a disruptive pass rusher for the Cleveland Browns.
Still, execs and coaches ranked Watt higher than players like Micah Parsons, Nick Bosa, Aidan Hutchinson, Trey Hendrickson, and Maxx Crosby. That's saying a lot in an era loaded with All-Pro-level pass rushers.
NFL coaches and execs know the true value of Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt
It's always important to consider analytics when making decisions or assembling player rankings, but there's so much more that goes into the evaluation process, and these coaches and executives know T.J. Watt's true value.
Watt didn't wow anyone with his 19 percent pass rush win rate last season, per ESPN analytics, and when doubled, he was a bit underwhelming in the havoc he caused. However, the Steelers star was the most frequently chipped edge rusher in the league last year, according to the most updated PFF data, and Teryl Austin's vanilla defense did him no favors. The opposing team knew where Watt was going to line up every play, and they devoted extra attention to him.
These same coaches voting are those who had to gameplan to stop Pittsburgh's best player. Even with the attention, Watt still proved to be a splash playmaker, leading the NFL with six forced fumbles while collecting 19 tackles for a loss.
Nobody's saying that 2024 was T.J. Watt's best season, and quite honestly, it's fair to argue that players like Parsons and Hutchinson could also be higher than the Steelers star in 2025 edge rusher rankings. However, NFL execs and coaches know just how great this future Hall of Famer is, and the national football media can't be so blinded by advanced analytics that they lose track of his value.
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