A new plan for star pass rusher T.J. Watt. That was touted throughout the spring, summer, and start of the season. After a quiet end to 2024 and start to 2025, it was often the topic topic of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense. No more would Watt be glued to the left side of the defense, easily spotted and taken away.
Has that happened? Hardly. Pittsburgh’s settled into the same plan. Using our weekly charting, here’s a year-by-year breakdown of where Watt has aligned. Starting with 2021 and through this year, only skipping 2022 since he missed half the year with a pec injury.
T.J. Watt Alignment (2021, 2023-2025)
Year Left EDGE Right EDGE Off-Ball
2025 96.8% 2.2% 1.0%
2024 98.0% 1.5% 0.6%
2023 97.8% 0.9% 1.2%
2021 91.8% 1.9% 6.2%
Not much of a change. A slight difference compared to the past two years. But it’s negligible. The last time Watt truly did any sort of moving around came in 2021 when he was often used off-ball. Largely, that wasn’t related to pass rushing but part of Pittsburgh’s run-stopping over fronts that moved the playside defensive end over the tight end and the playside outside linebacker in the A-gap. That made up over half of that year’s 6.3 percent off-ball mark.
Even with Pittsburgh’s three outside linebacker package that offers more flexibility, Watt has stayed static. In that 1-5-5 look, Watt has spent 27 of 28 snaps on the left edge. Only once has he aligned off-ball. Nick Herbig has aligned off-ball 18 times. Alex Highsmith and Jack Sawyer have done so three times apiece.
Don’t confuse the data for criticism. I’m not upset at Pittsburgh failing to follow through on its word. Moving Watt around wasn’t required to jumpstart him. Other tools could be used to accomplish that. The Steelers are blitzing more and using Watt on more stunts to free him up. One that nearly earned him a sack against the Los Angeles Chargers. The coverage just didn’t hold up well enough in the back end.
Watt’s stayed static because he’s comfortable rushing from that side. He’s built a Hall of Fame career off it. His 2025 production is still below-the-norm, six sacks in nine games, though his impact has picked off after going sackless the first two games of the year. Watt has recorded a full sack in four of seven games since and a half-sack in six of them.
But it’s important to follow-up on what Pittsburgh said. To test if those words were put into actions. Especially with all the offseason and early-season ink spilled on the topic. Watt is doing his normal thing from the left side. With a handful of other changes to free him up. Still, as the NBC broadcast pointed out Sunday night, Watt remains the most-often chipped player in football – by far.
That would be true no matter where he aligns but like 2024 and the years before, Watt isn’t hard to find in 2025.
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