He is definitely the best defensive player since Green for the Steelers. I believe he has passed every other Steelers defender in team history. If he doesn’t miss any more time this season he might have a legitimate shot at league MVP.
Hes not winning mvp unless all the qbs in the league vanish And slow down on him being he 2nd greatest steelers defender of all time he still has plenty of work to do before moiving in that position of the list.
I don't know just yet. Lots of great defenders in Steelers history. Watt is a great player but guys like Blount, Lambert, Ham, Woodson, etc are legendary players. We'll see
Kevin Greene, James Harrison, Troy Palumolu, Greg Lloyd, Levon Kirkland, Chad Brown, Jason Gildon, Rod Woodson just to name a few since Mean Joe.... Is TJ better than all of these? I think he is outstanding but to put him above these and others in the impressive Steeler defensive talent array is a bit premature. Injuries could derail his career as they have his brother JJ, so let us judge it better when he is closer to retirement age. On that note, TJ is having one hell of a monster season, every bit a DPOY.
I watched every one of those players on TV live and TJ is the only one that absolutely makes a difference as to whether you win or not. If TJ can’t finish the game then the Steelers can’t win. We are winless in games TJ has missed a half or more.
One caveat for me is that those other players had more talent around them. I would say that Troy is every bit the level of player that TJ is. Edit to finish thought: I make that point to say that when one of those players went out, team performance didn't dive bomb. The other side of the coin could be that TJ buoys the D more than any player ever did but I would tend to feel different
What makes last season even better looking for Watt is the fact our run defense was last in the league meaning teams didn’t have to pass as much as they should have number one and the defensive players were gassed a lot of the time number two.
