LATROBE, Pa. (AP) – There are moments on the football field when TJ Watt gets nothing. The roar of the crowd fades. All but one of the other 21 players on the field did too.
At moments like this, it’s just Watt and the guy with the ball. The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year has no telling when those moments will come. The Pittsburgh Steelers fullback embarrassedly can’t give you too many details once he has done so.
Which explains why Watt could only manage a small smile when asked about his encounter with rookie wide receiver Calvin Austin III – all 5-foot-9 and 162 pounds – during a chippy practice on Tuesday. Austin had taken a small pop pass from quarterback Mitch Trubisky and attempted to turn the corner.
Watt’s corner. It didn’t go well. At least not for Austin.
Watt shared a pair of blockers and then proceeded to drive Austin into the Chuck Noll Field turf. Only he wasn’t done yet. Watt stood up and then continued walking across the top of Austin while bowing, a flash of Watt at the zenith of his alpha dog.
Was it necessary? No but …
“Sometimes you get a blackout and you’re just trying to have fun, involve people.” said Watts.
These blackouts have become more frequent as Watt has evolved “JJ’s Little Brother” one of the best pass rushers of his generation. He signed one of the richest defensive ends in NFL history on the eve of the 2021 season and then repaid that investment by a league-record 22-1/2 sacks and topping the pick for the best defensive tackle in football with ease.
It was a historic season in almost every way. Every metric but one. The one Watt knows — aside from the sacks and the splash games and the unique kind of havoc he wreaks almost every weekend in the fall — he’ll ultimately be judged by no matter how many sides of the team’s records the 27-year-old Watt has rewrites throughout his career.
“We have to win a Super Bowl” Watt said Wednesday.
Something his team hasn’t come close to getting close to since arriving in the 2017 draft. The Steelers didn’t win a playoff game during Watt’s tenure, the most recent setback being an ultimately one-sided loss to Kansas City in January, a game that began with Watt returning a fumble on a botched trick play 26 yards for a touchdown to Pittsburgh into the lead which eventually disappeared under an avalanche of mistakes from a depleted-looking defence.
The blowout marked the final game of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s Hall of Famer career. It also signaled a sort of change of identity for a team whose fate depended heavily on Roethlisberger’s right arm for most of the decade.
Not in 2022. The offense appears to be a work in progress as free-agent signee Trubisky faces the daunting task of attempting to replace a franchise icon. Pittsburgh’s best shot at surviving in a potentially strained AFC North will require the defense as a whole to rediscover pride that was at times elusive last fall.
It’s a boast that Watt and defensive end Cam Heyward – two of the three longest-serving players on the squad – have tried to pierce during the early days of practice. The two veterans have served as spearheads in a handful of duels that remain a regular part of training camp, berating – and sometimes more than berating – the attacking players in white jerseys during practice.
For Watt, the occasional post-game flex is his way of leading by example, a signal to younger players that it’s okay to enjoy your job.
“It’s very hard to make a game (so) when you make one, you have to celebrate.” he said.
As a self-confessed football nerd who may have grown up in the first NFL football nerd family, the rigors of camp are something to be enjoyed, not endured. He missed physicality last year when he skipped the full-contact portion of drills, a business decision he made to protect his health until he and the Steelers ironed out a new deal.
“As hard as I worked last year, you can’t really show it on the field,” he said. “So it’s definitely refreshing to be able to be out there.”
Also necessary. Watt is intimately familiar with Steelers history. He knows he’s the next in a line of great Pittsburgh linebackers that stretches back half a century. Many of the legends he seeks to keep have multiple championship rings at home.
Watt is still looking for his first. He knows he can hardly do it alone, one of the many reasons the formerly shy pass-sweeping prodigy is more visible — and audible — in almost every aspect of his life.
“To really help the lads and be a leader you have to be very comfortable on that defense, in the dressing room, with everything.” he said. “I feel very well. I feel like there’s so much more I can bring to the game.”
REMARKS:
The Steelers hired former Pittsburgh Penguins CEO David Morehouse as a special advisor to team president Art Rooney II. … Pittsburgh placed recently signed RB Jeremy McNichols on injured reserve and signed former Ohio State RB champion Teague.
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