The Secrets That Made T.J. Watt the NFL’s Most Disruptive Defender - WSJ
Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt makes a habit of approaching officials before games to alert them to something they will see over the next several hours. He explains that he plans to line up as close to the line of scrimmage as legally possible—so close they may be tempted to flag him for being offsides, even if he’s not.
“Why not get as close as you possibly can?” Watt says. “I don’t know why more guys don’t do it.”
Watt is an inch thief. Every inch he steals as he creeps closer to the line brings him that much closer to the place he plans on being just a few seconds later: on top of the quarterback. He has spent more time there than any NFL player in 2020.
Watt takes the Pittsburgh Steelers’ vaunted defense into this weekend’s playoff matchup with the Cleveland Browns after leading the league in both sacks (15) and tackles for a loss (26). He’s the most disruptive player on the NFL’s best defense, and it’s his job to spend his Sunday night flattening Baker Mayfield into the grass.
There are pass rushers bigger than Watt—including his brother J.J. Watt, the three-time defensive player of the year for the Houston Texans. There are pass rushers faster than Watt, like his own teammate Bud Dupree. There’s even at least one who is both bigger and faster than him: Aaron Donald, the one-man wrecking crew for the Los Angeles Rams. But what separates Watt from all of his peers is an uncanny knack for predicting what will happen on a football field and exploiting it.
“T. J. is visiting from another planet,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said recently. “He has freakishly unique talent coupled with freakishly unique work habits.”
The Steelers took Watt with their first-round pick in the 2017 draft and placed him where so many blue-chip edge rushers go: the right side of the defense. It’s a spot that has been glorified because it enables pass rushers to attack right-handed quarterbacks from behind them where they can’t see—also known as the blind side. He finished the season with seven sacks.
He had seven sacks after just seven games in 2018, a rise that he attributed to one thing in particular. He started lining up on the left side.
He suddenly felt as if he had twice as much information. He didn’t just know what he wanted to do. He also could watch what the person he wanted to tackle wanted to do. “Just being able to see the quarterback’s eyes more than anything,” he says. “When you’re on the back side rushing, you can’t see the football.”
It’s incredibly important knowledge for Watt because of the nature of the position he plays. Quarterbacks in the NFL typically throw the ball in about two to three seconds. They drop back to pass around 37 times per game. That gives pass rushers roughly 100 seconds over the course of an entire football game to make their biggest impact. The smallest differences that affect fractions of a second quickly become hugely important. One sack in a game amounts to a hugely successful day for a pass rusher.
Other forces have also conspired against the T.J. Watts of the NFL lately. Holding penalties are down, giving offensive linemen more leeway to get away with underhanded tactics. Quarterbacks throw more short passes. The result: quarterbacks were sacked on only 5.9% of dropbacks in 2020. That’s down from 6.7% just a year ago, and near the all-time low of 5.8% in 2016.
Coming from the opposite side has allowed Watt to do two things. He can steer his rush to where he believes the quarterback will be, not just where he is at any given moment. And he can get a clear look at the football—helping him better predict its future location. This is where Watt truly shines.
Since making the move, he has totaled 42.5 sacks over the last three seasons, second in the NFL behind only Aaron Donald. His 49 tackles for a loss are also second, behind Donald. His 98 QB hits are most in the league.
Since 2018, Watt has also forced a league-high 16 fumbles. That means he doesn’t just excel at getting to the quarterback’s location rapidly; he also is better than anyone at pinning down where the quarterback is keeping the ball, to jar it loose.
The other way of measuring this is how often he gets his hand on the ball even when he doesn’t reach the quarterback. There are 10 players who have accumulated at least 30 sacks in the last three seasons. Watt’s three interceptions are the most of the bunch. So are his 18 passes defended. No one else in the group has more than 13.
Watt says a key to all of this is analytics. Staffers prepare troves of information that distill everything he sees on tape into concrete data. It’s one thing for him to watch every pass an opposing quarterback has thrown all season. It’s another for him to see the exact numbers on where exactly the quarterback tends to sit in the pocket in certain situations.
“It’s becoming the new age of football,” he says.
There are analytics that also show how Watt’s technique brings him closer to his goal before the play ever begins. When lined up on the edge, Watt was an average of just 0.39 yards from the line of scrimmage—tied for first closest among pass rushers with a minimum of 100 snaps, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
That brings him so close that it often appears he is offsides. Yet he was flagged just twice this season for offsides, encroachment or neutral zone infractions. The other nine pass rushers with double-digit sacks combined for 19 such violations, meaning he’s whistled for this even less than some of his peers.
The one other player in the NFL who lines up as close to the line of scrimmage as Watt is also one of the league’s most indomitable pass rushers. He will also play a monumental role in the Steelers’ playoff fortunes. That’s because Myles Garrett plays for the Cleveland Browns.
Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt makes a habit of approaching officials before games to alert them to something they will see over the next several hours. He explains that he plans to line up as close to the line of scrimmage as legally possible—so close they may be tempted to flag him for being offsides, even if he’s not.
“Why not get as close as you possibly can?” Watt says. “I don’t know why more guys don’t do it.”
Watt is an inch thief. Every inch he steals as he creeps closer to the line brings him that much closer to the place he plans on being just a few seconds later: on top of the quarterback. He has spent more time there than any NFL player in 2020.
Watt takes the Pittsburgh Steelers’ vaunted defense into this weekend’s playoff matchup with the Cleveland Browns after leading the league in both sacks (15) and tackles for a loss (26). He’s the most disruptive player on the NFL’s best defense, and it’s his job to spend his Sunday night flattening Baker Mayfield into the grass.
There are pass rushers bigger than Watt—including his brother J.J. Watt, the three-time defensive player of the year for the Houston Texans. There are pass rushers faster than Watt, like his own teammate Bud Dupree. There’s even at least one who is both bigger and faster than him: Aaron Donald, the one-man wrecking crew for the Los Angeles Rams. But what separates Watt from all of his peers is an uncanny knack for predicting what will happen on a football field and exploiting it.
“T. J. is visiting from another planet,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said recently. “He has freakishly unique talent coupled with freakishly unique work habits.”
The Steelers took Watt with their first-round pick in the 2017 draft and placed him where so many blue-chip edge rushers go: the right side of the defense. It’s a spot that has been glorified because it enables pass rushers to attack right-handed quarterbacks from behind them where they can’t see—also known as the blind side. He finished the season with seven sacks.
He had seven sacks after just seven games in 2018, a rise that he attributed to one thing in particular. He started lining up on the left side.
He suddenly felt as if he had twice as much information. He didn’t just know what he wanted to do. He also could watch what the person he wanted to tackle wanted to do. “Just being able to see the quarterback’s eyes more than anything,” he says. “When you’re on the back side rushing, you can’t see the football.”
It’s incredibly important knowledge for Watt because of the nature of the position he plays. Quarterbacks in the NFL typically throw the ball in about two to three seconds. They drop back to pass around 37 times per game. That gives pass rushers roughly 100 seconds over the course of an entire football game to make their biggest impact. The smallest differences that affect fractions of a second quickly become hugely important. One sack in a game amounts to a hugely successful day for a pass rusher.
Other forces have also conspired against the T.J. Watts of the NFL lately. Holding penalties are down, giving offensive linemen more leeway to get away with underhanded tactics. Quarterbacks throw more short passes. The result: quarterbacks were sacked on only 5.9% of dropbacks in 2020. That’s down from 6.7% just a year ago, and near the all-time low of 5.8% in 2016.
Coming from the opposite side has allowed Watt to do two things. He can steer his rush to where he believes the quarterback will be, not just where he is at any given moment. And he can get a clear look at the football—helping him better predict its future location. This is where Watt truly shines.
Since making the move, he has totaled 42.5 sacks over the last three seasons, second in the NFL behind only Aaron Donald. His 49 tackles for a loss are also second, behind Donald. His 98 QB hits are most in the league.
Since 2018, Watt has also forced a league-high 16 fumbles. That means he doesn’t just excel at getting to the quarterback’s location rapidly; he also is better than anyone at pinning down where the quarterback is keeping the ball, to jar it loose.
The other way of measuring this is how often he gets his hand on the ball even when he doesn’t reach the quarterback. There are 10 players who have accumulated at least 30 sacks in the last three seasons. Watt’s three interceptions are the most of the bunch. So are his 18 passes defended. No one else in the group has more than 13.
Watt says a key to all of this is analytics. Staffers prepare troves of information that distill everything he sees on tape into concrete data. It’s one thing for him to watch every pass an opposing quarterback has thrown all season. It’s another for him to see the exact numbers on where exactly the quarterback tends to sit in the pocket in certain situations.
“It’s becoming the new age of football,” he says.
There are analytics that also show how Watt’s technique brings him closer to his goal before the play ever begins. When lined up on the edge, Watt was an average of just 0.39 yards from the line of scrimmage—tied for first closest among pass rushers with a minimum of 100 snaps, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats.
That brings him so close that it often appears he is offsides. Yet he was flagged just twice this season for offsides, encroachment or neutral zone infractions. The other nine pass rushers with double-digit sacks combined for 19 such violations, meaning he’s whistled for this even less than some of his peers.
The one other player in the NFL who lines up as close to the line of scrimmage as Watt is also one of the league’s most indomitable pass rushers. He will also play a monumental role in the Steelers’ playoff fortunes. That’s because Myles Garrett plays for the Cleveland Browns.
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