The Pittsburgh Steelers have one of the best defensive units in the league, and a lot of that obviously has to do with T.J. Watt.
Granted that Mike Tomlin’s defense has always done a solid job of making sure to put fences and clear gaps to make Watt’s job easier, but the real-time adjustments he makes on every play are often spectacular.
Notably, former NFL players Marcus Spears and Dan Orlovsky broke that down by showing a couple of plays in the win over the Green Bay Packers.
Spears and Orlovsky raved about the way that Watt can always stay flat and parallel to the line of scrimmage and then make minor tweaks and contour his body to make sure to get to where the action is.
“Earn the right to rush the passer”
MVP/DPOY candidate @_TJWatt embodies it
-what it mean to “set the edge” and why does it matter with @mspears96 @steelers @Steelersdepot @SteeIerNation #nfllive pic.twitter.com/R1EPVMfkhe
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) November 15, 2023
Those adjustments prevented a couple of big plays by the Packers, and that’s just the way he operates more often than not.
It was hard to envision that T.J. Watt could’ve been any better than his older brother, J.J., who was a dominant force of his own and one of the most dominant defensive players of his generation.
But at this rate, it’s time we start putting Watt’s name in the ‘best defender on Earth’ conversation.
He could already be considered the greatest defensive player in Pittsburgh Steelers’ history, which is a lot to say, considering the plethora of legends that have donned that jersey in the past.
And if he keeps this up, he’ll go from first-ballot Hall of Famer to one of the five best defenders of all time.
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