Most of Steeler Nation has already seen the statistics. Over the last few years, the Pittsburgh Steelers have won just a single game without star edge rusher, TJ Watt. Of course, one would expect a team to struggle when a generational talent is out of the lineup, but the situation here is much different. Watt isn’t just a key piece of a team searching for its identity; he is the identity of the team. Pittsburgh lives and dies by Watt’s mere existence on the field of play.
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How Watt changes Steelers’ narratives
Even though Watt has missed time before this season, the fact that he missed many consecutive games shows how the team operates when he’s not there. Cameron Heyward was considered by many to be “washed up” and no longer the same player he was over the last half decade. Once Watt returned, that narrative quickly died off and he’s back to being a force on the interior defensive line. Alex Highsmith has received more praise when Watt is opposite of him on the edge than when he isn’t as well.
It’s not even just in the pass rush where TJ Watt completely changes the narrative. Cameron Sutton was thought of as a corner that wouldn’t attract much on the FA market, even by the Steelers. Ever since TJ Watt came back, he’s been hailed as a shutdown corner for the team. Some Steelers fans originally thought of him as just a good slot corner, but now he’s been getting recognition for his play on the outside as well.
No other Steelers player has had this kind of impact on the team in so long. Not even Landry Jones or Mason Rudolph filling in for star quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, has had this much of an impact for the team. When Minkah Fitzpatrick or Terrell Edmunds got injured earlier this season, no one noticed because of Damontae Kazee filling in nicely. Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky have played very similarly, showing that missing one doesn’t have too much of an impact. The offense has been very similar before and after the Chase Claypool trade too.
A lot of this stems from the scheming of head coach, Mike Tomlin. He prefers a zone defense that thrives on the pass rush. His defense is schemed around the presence of Watt, but what happens when he’s not healthy enough to play? The Steelers stuck with the game plan, meaning the fate of the team was put on Watt’s backup, Malik Reed. It’s fair to say that Coach Tomlin isn’t wrong for scheming the defense around a generational talent, but it’s also not wrong to say that expecting Reed to fill Watt’s shoes is unreasonable.
Even before Reed, the Steelers’ pass rush would depend on guys like Derrek Tuszka and Taco Charlton. All of these players can be very solid rotational pieces, but expecting them to be key contributors and make up for the loss of Watt is just insane. Of course, no one on the Steelers can fill Watt’s shoes, but you’d think that the scheme would be adjusted somewhat so these role players don’t have to try.
As many have seen, TJ Watt can single-handedly win some regular season games, but he can’t do the same for a playoff game. Some of the burden has to be taken off of him for this team to do anything in the playoffs. That could mean a scheme change, or better personnel, or anything, but at the end of the day, no NFL team should have to rely on a single player to take the team from bad to good. Even a quarterback shouldn’t have to be the only thing keeping a team afloat.
What do you think about what TJ Watt means to this team? Let us know in the comments below.
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