Player: OLB T.J. Watt
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: Even if defenses are chipping T.J. Watt on every play, it doesn’t change the fact that he is no longer impacting games. The Steelers are paying him $41 million a year, and they aren’t coming close to a solid return on investment. One can argue that the attention he receives is valuable, but the bottom line is teams are neutralizing him.
T.J. Watt recorded six tackles against the Packers, but it feels like it’s been a while since he’s had a splash play. The reality is he recorded at least half a sack in four consecutive games prior to Sunday, which is pretty good. But it seems that teams have learned how to take him out of games for the majority of the day. The Packers certainly did.
Now, Watt did have a good game playing the run, making some run stops and being part of an overall strong unit in that regard. But Green Bay made him nearly irrelevant in the passing game. That isn’t entirely his fault, as the secondary is allowing guys to get open so fast that quarterbacks are just getting the ball out of their hands too fast for the rush to get home.
But if that is indeed the case, then they need to do something. Maybe they need to start dropping Watt and their linebackers more again or something. They used to drop 25-30 percent of the time on passing downs, if not more.
In theory, a defense with T.J. Watt should not allow 30-plus points and over 450 yards once, let alone multiple times. That’s what the Steelers have done the past two weeks. The Browns may be a worse team, but at least their defense occasionally makes plays. On the season, Watt has just four sacks and five tackles for loss. He does have an interception and a forced fumble. But for his salary, he is just not having the impact one demands.
With regular season underway and the roster in place, it’s once again time to “take stock”. It took a while, but we finally saw some of thatchange the team talked about after the season ended. Certainly, the move to trade for WR DK Metcalf qualifies as a change, not to mention the accompanying contract. Oh, and they also traded some guy named George Pickens, which people found significant.
After a long offseason, we finally know what this Steelers team will look like for the 2025 season. The dust is long settled on both free agency andthe 2025 NFL Draft, and now we’re into the real thing . What final moves might the team make, if any? They’ve certainly made a flurry of moves, though some question whether they make much difference. This is a Steelers team starving for postseason success, but how desperate are they for a playoff win in 2025?
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