T.J. Watt Steelers defense
T.J. Watt Steelers defense
Heading into the 2025 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense received a lot of hype, primarily due to their own words. Former head coach Mike Tomlin and safety Juan Thornhill described the defense as “historic” and “best of all-time”. But the unit failed to live up to the hype.
Pittsburgh’s defense struggled compared to previous years. It failed to stop the run consistently and was unable to get off the field in a timely fashion. Players started to complain about the scheme and the coaching.
Significant change happened this offseason: Tomlin resigned, Mike McCarthy was hired, and Patrick Graham was installed as the new defensive coordinator. He had the unenviable task of stepping into a proven room that has veterans who do things a certain way.
So far, though, it’s been a collaboration. McCarthy wanted the Steelers to retain a 3-4 base, so Graham is doing that. But he’s adding a twist, changing things up for the veterans like Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt, creating new defensive front structures, changing alignments and drawing up different pressure packages.
That has Watt, who appeared on SiriusXM NFL Radio’s Movin’ The Chains with Pat Kirwan and Jacob Hester Saturday, excited for what’s ahead with Graham.
“I think it’s very transparent how he coaches. He wants to hear our feedback. He knows that we’ve established a lot of great things here, but it’s also a very versatile defense,” Watt said of Graham’s defense, according to audio via SiriusXM. “He’s gonna allow us to do a lot of different things. You’re gonna see a lot of different front structures, a lot of things you haven’t really seen from us before where you don’t really necessarily know exactly who the blitzers are.
“I think that’s gonna make us really dangerous compared to years past.”
One of the biggest gripes with the Steelers defense last season centered on Watt and the lack of creativity with him. He was a stationary target on the right side of the opponent’s offense, allowing them to easily use chips, double teams, and backs out of the backfield against him. It didn’t help that Watt didn’t want to move around much, either.
That all changes this season. Watt hinted as much, too, stating Graham’s defense won’t allow him to remain stationary. That’s a good thing. It will also allow the Steelers to work in more three-OLB sets, getting Watt, Alex Highsmith and the recently paid Nick Herbig on the field simultaneously.
Hopefully that leads to increased pressures, creative blitz packages, and more under Graham. The new defensive coordinator talked about his goal with pressures on Saturday morning, too. He gave an insightful answer on the differences between run pressures and pass pressures, and what he’s aiming to do.
From the sound of it, the Steelers will rush the passer at a very high level this season. That should make the Steelers all the more dangerous on that side of the football, as Watt said.