Tag: T.J. Watt

J.J. Watt sees both sides of Steelers trading QB Kenny Pickett

J.J. Watt understands why Pickett wanted to be traded but he also gets it why the Steelers signed Russell Wilson.

It came as a huge surprise when the Pittsburgh Steelers traded quarterback Kenny Pickett to the Philadelphia Eagles just days after news came out that the Steelers were signing Russell Wilson and it was rumored there would be a quarterback competition.

However, it came out after that Pickett was the one who initiated the trade and was hoping to land somewhere with an opportunity to start but frankly, his situation now is much worse behind Jalen Hurts.

Former NFL star J.J. Watt was on the Pat McAfee Show and talked about the Pickett situation. He offered an interesting perspective about it and noted he could see both sides of it.

“I’m sure he is frustrated. I’m sure he feels like he never got the full proper opportunity to show his potential and develop, which is a thing that’s happening in this league. We are not giving guys time to develop, grow and fight through adversity and come out the other side, because it’s such a win-now world that we live in. So, I don’t blame him at all for wanting an opportunity to compete somewhere or go somewhere and try something new. When you bring in a guy and say he’s automatically the starter and you don’t even get a chance, I get it. I completely understand his side. But at the same time, I don’t blame the Steelers at all. When an opportunity presents itself like that, a minimum contract for a guy that’s won a Super Bowl, you’ve got to take it.”

Watt has a vested interest in the Steelers with little brother T.J. the biggest star on defense. Regardless of what he says about Pickett, he knows his little brother is the best defensive player in the league but has never won a playoff game and he wants that to end this season. Wilson gives the Steelers a much better chance to break that losing streak.

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Steelers EDGE T.J. Watt honored at 101 Awards

Voters for the Associated Press awards didn’t get it right, but the 101 Awards voters did.

Voters for the Associated Press awards didn’t get it right, but the 101 Awards voters did. On Friday night, Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt was honored at the 101 Awards as the 2023 AFC Defensive Player of the Year.

Watt was presented with the award, flanked by longtime defensive line coach Karl Dunbar and outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin. It was Watt’s third time winning the honor, having previously won it in 2020 and 2021.

Watt had another outstanding season in the Black and Gold, racking up 48 solo tackles (19 for loss), 20 assists, 19.0 sacks, 3 fumble recoveries, 36 QB hits and one interception in 17 games.

It’s a head-scratcher, as the selection committees of the 101 Awards and AP NFL awards have common voters, yet the NFL Defensive Player of the Year — the most coveted award in the league — voted Myles Garrett as its winner.

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Bud Dupree opens up about potential reunion with Mike Tomlin, Steelers

Ex-Steelers EDGE Bud Dupree would love to reunite with Mike Tomlin.

Since the 2021 season, it’s been the T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith Show on the edge of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense.

But a familiar name popped up recently as a guy who would like to return to Pittsburgh: Bud Dupree. If the opportunity presented itself, the free agent would like to give Watt and Highsmith a helping hand.

“For sure,” Dupree said in an interview with Ron Lippock, author of “Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades.”

“If the opportunity came up. Definitely. It’s a great organization and Tomlin – he is who he is. The standard is the standard – for sure, I’d go back.”

There were rumblings of a potential reunion last offseason and the Steelers even brought him in for a visit. Instead, Dupree signed on with the Atlanta Falcons, coached then by Steelers new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

In his time away from Pittsburgh, Dupree has logged 13 sacks, 74 tackles (16 for loss), four defended passes, four forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and 25 quarterback hits in 38 games (33 starts).

That sounds like a guy who’d be perfect to rotate in — something we suggested last month. Of course, the Steelers have newcomer Jeremiah Moon and second-year player Nick Herbig, who are also ready to answer the bell.

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Report: Brian Burns was seeking long-term deal worth close to $30 million per year

According to ESPN’s David Newton, Brian Burns was seeking close to $30 million per year during the most recent round of contract talks with the Panthers.

So, how close did the Carolina Panthers and outside linebacker Brian Burns get in last year’s contract negotiations? Well, according to ESPN’s David Newton, not very.

Newton dove into the team’s free agency outlook with a new post on Tuesday morning. Leading their group of soon-to-be free agents is Burns, who was reportedly looking for around $30 million per year.

He writes:

Burns was seeking a long-term deal with an average salary of close to $30 million last season, according to a source with knowledge of the negotiations. The two sides never got close. With Carolina expected to have about $39 million in cap space, it seems unlikely it will dedicate that much now to one player since they have so many other needs.

As of now, there is only one edge defender in the NFL currently receiving at least $30 million per season—and that’s San Francisco’s Nick Bosa ($34 million). He’s followed by Pittsburgh’s T.J. Watt ($28 million), Los Angeles’ Joey Bosa ($27 million) and Cleveland’s Myles Garrett ($25 million).

With the exception of Nick’s big brother, each of those big-money pass rushers has an AP Defensive Player of the Year award to their name. In fact, they’re the last three—with Watt winning in 2021, Bosa in 2022 and Garrett in 2023.

Burns, obviously, has yet to reel in the honor. The 2019 first-round pick was named a Pro bowl starter in 2021 and 2022 as well as an alternate for this year’s all-star festivities.

If Burns and the Panthers cannot come to an agreement once again, the team can apply the franchise tag to the 25-year-old defender. Per Over The Cap, the tag on linebackers is worth almost $23 million for the 2024 campaign.

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T.J. Watt dismissive of critique by Steelers legend

T.J. Watt and the Steelers have been repeating the same mantra without results.

The dynamics of the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room were under a microscope for much of the team’s 2023 season. Star defender T.J. Watt was pressed about it in an interview during Super Bowl 58 media week, particularly as it pertained to Ben Roethlisberger’s criticism of Steelers tradition last December.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the guys in the locker room and it’s hard for people on the outside to truly get a feel for what’s going on on the inside,” Watt said in a Feb. 8 interview with Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz.

Watt went on to talk about how the team has to “come together” as a group. This has been the unfulfilled mantra for the past two seasons, yet the Steelers continue to underperform.

Though Ben Roethlisberger is heading into his third year of retirement, he’s not too far removed from his days in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. He now has an unfiltered outsider’s perspective on just how tradition and culture have changed in recent years.

Winning — with consistency — will make it all better. Only they’ve been on the wrong path. We’ll see if 2024 puts them on the right one.

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Steelers LB T.J. Watt clarifies cryptic tweet after getting edged out by Myles Garrett

T.J. Watt clarified the tweet he posted after learning he didn’t win DPOY.

After learning he wasn’t being named NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year, T.J. Watt posted a tweet on Thursday, presumably reacting to the news.

The winner hadn’t yet been revealed, so those five little words, “Nothing I’m not used to,” caused quite a stir.

On Friday night at Super Bowl media week, SB Nation’s JP Acosta asked Watt to clarify his remark.

I think that’s up for everybody to kind of debate It was just one of those things where people were seeing I wasn’t there. I wanted to let them know why I wasn’t there, and it was just a situation where it is something I’m truly used to at this point, so I’ll just use it as motivation going forward.

Watt was in familiar territory after finishing third in the 2019 voting and second in 2020 for Defensive Player of the Year. In 2021, he was finally named DPOY with 22.5 sacks (tied Michael Strahan, 2001).

Watt has every right to feel slighted. He led the league in sacks with 19.0 (the second-highest mark in a single season in his career), becoming the first player to do so on three separate occasions. He also finished top five in tackles for loss and forced fumbles.

He did everything in his power to play up to and beyond the standard of what’s deemed a Defensive Player of the Year, aside from excelling at some made-up stat (“pass rush win rate”) that the NFL doesn’t even track or count.

Watt produced more in nearly every statistical category than his counterpart, yet Garrett walked away with the coveted award with 24 votes over Watt’s 19.

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Twitter reacts to Micah Parsons ripping Steelers LB T.J. Watt

Micah Parsons says T.J. Watt isn’t a Top 5 pass rusher.

For whatever reason, this season’s Defensive Player of the Year Award was highly controversial and the win by Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett over Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt seems to have everyone speaking up.

One guy who had a lot to say was Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons. He claimed that Watt isn’t a Top 5 pass rusher and this of course got social media abuzz. Here are some of our favorite posts about Parson’s comments.

Former star DE J.J. Watt calls Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson underrated

Huge praise for Trey Hendrickson from J.J. Watt.

Cincinnati Bengals edge rusher Trey Hendrickson had a very good season, and he was noticed by former NFL defensive end J.J. Watt, who still talks to his former Houston Texans teammate and current Bengal DJ Reader.

“I talk to him about all those guys all the time,” J.J. Watt said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. “(Sam) Hubbard and Trey. They’ve got a really good squad down there.”

Hendrickson finished just behind Watt’s younger brother, T.J. Watt in sacks this season, getting 17.5 while Watt had 19 for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Hobson said Watt smiled as he talked about Hendrickson.

“Doesn’t always wear gloves, right? Goes barehanded. Among football guys, that’s like, ‘OK. Doesn’t wear gloves. That’s a little out there.'”

“But you respect it because it means you play the game a certain way and I think he embodies that … He’s a great player. An underrated player. He doesn’t get as much credit as he probably should, but he had a great year … He’s got some great moves and he’s also got power.”

Praise from someone of J.J. Watt’s caliber is nothing to scoff at, so for Hendrickson to be recognized by him is a high compliment.

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No Pittsburgh media among AP awards voters

Here is the full list of AP voters for the NFL awards.

Thursday night was the NFL Honors where the most prestigious individual awards of the season were handed out. Those awards are voted on by a select group of AP media members.

Pittsburgh Steelers fans are all up in the air about the voting for Defensive Player of the Year which went to Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett rather than Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt. Not to feed the conspiracy theorists out there but if you look at the list below you will see that none of the 50 voters are members of the Pittsburgh media. Do with that information what you will.

Emmanuel Acho, FS1
Greg Auman, Fox Sports
Howard Balzer, PHNX radio
Jarrett Bell, USA Today
Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press
Tom Brady, Fox Sports
Tedy Bruschi, ESPN
Vic Carucci, WGRZ radio
Mark Craig, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Tom Curran, NBC Sports Boston
Charles Davis, CBS Sports
Nate Davis, USA Today
Howard Deneroff, Westwood One
Tony Dungy, NBC Sports
Jori Epstein, Yahoo Sports
Boomer Esiason, CBS Sports
Doug Farrar, USA Today Sports Media
Mike Florio, Pro Football Talk
Reuben Frank, NBC Sports Philadelphia
Rich Gannon, SiriusXM
Jonathan Jones, CBS Sports
Lindsay Jones, The Ringer
Mike Jones, The Athletic
Clark Judge, Talk of Fame Network
Ira Kaufman, JoeBucsFan(dot)com
Mina Kimes, ESPN
Peter King, NBC Sports
Pat Kirwan, SiriusXM
Jeff Legwold, ESPN
Jim Miller, SiriusXM
Sam Monson, Pro Football Focus
Bruce Murray, SiriusXM
Gary Myers, NFL author
Laura Okmin, Fox Sports
Dan Orlovsky, ESPN
Nick Pavlatos, SiriusXM
Dan Pompei, The Athletic
Nora Princiotti, The Ringer
Lorenzo Reyes, USA Today
Charles Robinson, Yahoo Sports
Dianna Russini, The Athletic
Mike Sando, The Athletic
Aaron Schatz, FTN Network
Adam Schein, CBS Sports
Tom Silverstein, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Chris Simms, NBC Sports
Armando Salguero, Outkick(dot)com
Mike Tirico, NBC Sports
Ben Volin, Boston Globe
Charean Williams, Pro Football Talk

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4 Steelers takeaways from the NFL Honors

We are much more excited for Cam Heyward than we are disappointed or T.J. Watt.

Thursday night was the NFL Honors where the league gives out its big individual awards for the season. For whatever reason, this is something NFL fans, including Pittsburgh Steelers fans get heavily invested in. Let’s take a look at how things went for the Steelers and offer some takeaways.