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T.J. Watt finally confirmed what we were all thinking: He was not playing at 100 percent in the weeks after returning to the field for the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 13, 2022.
“I was not 100 percent for a lot of the games, and it was frustrating,” Watt admitted to The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly on June 5. “I just wanted to play football, and I couldn’t the way I wanted to. It was tough. … It wasn’t easy. It sucked not being able to participate and not being able to put your hand in the pile.”
Fresh off his Defensive Player of the Year nod, Watt looked poised to tear it up again. In the September 11 season opener versus the Cincinnati Bengals, he was on fire with 1.0 sacks, 12 total tackles (six solo; three for loss), a QB hit, two defended passes and one interception. But with the seconds ticking down, Watt went in for his second sack on Joe Burrow, only to slide off him before the quarterback got the ball off.
Watt walked off the field, grimacing in pain. He knew exactly what happened. Pointing to his left pectoral, he said, “I tore my pec.” Pittsburgh would go on to lose six of its next seven games leading up to the badly-needed November 6 bye week.
As we saw in the 2022 season, a less than 100 percent Watt is better than no Watt at all. And though football is a team sport, the Steelers suffered without him in the lineup. Per Steelers.com, the defense allowed 25.3 points and 389.9 yards per game and had 8.0 sacks and five takeaways in those seven games sans Watt. The unit just couldn’t get off the field, forcing the offense to do more. And that wasn’t in the cards with a rookie quarterback in Kenny Pickett who was just getting his feet wet.
While still feeling the effects of an injury that takes several months to heal, Watt suffered a rib injury a few weeks into his return. But his mere presence lit a fire under the defense and the team as a whole. They dropped two games, each by less than seven points to division rival Baltimore Ravens and Bengals, and finished the season with a 7-2 record. In 10 games with Watt, including Week 1, the Steelers went 8-2, allowing 16.9 points and 289.9 yards per game while registering 32 sacks and 18 takeaways.
Watt was nominated to the Pro Bowl, but for the first time since 2018, missed out on All-Pro honors and registered single-digit sacks for only the second time in his six-year career.
T.J. Watt Has a Simple Mantra for the 2023 Steelers Season
There’s a brand new season ahead for which T.J. Watt has one simple mantra: “I just need to stay healthy and everything else will take care of itself.”
Turning 29 on October 11, he can no longer train like he did when he first came into the league. Yet training is the most critical part of staying injury-free.
“I am not training as I was when I was 22, I will tell you that,” Watt said. “It makes no sense now. What I have learned is as you get older, you are always evolving. No offseason is the same. You are always evolving and learning about your body, and as I get older, that’s how I have approached every offseason, and this one was a little different than the others.”
Football and Steelers fans alike took to social media following Watt’s pec injury blasting him for being injury-prone. They couldn’t be more wrong.
He missed just one contest in the first three years of his career, appeared in 15 of 16 in 2020, and played in 15 of 17 in 2021.
A comeback season is in order for T.J. Watt.
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