Aaron Donald Raves About T.J. Watt’s Consistency: ‘His Stats Be Ridiculous Every Single Year’

During an appearance on the Green Light Podcast with Chris Long, former Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald reiterated that T.J. Watt is the best defensive player in the NFL.

“If you wanna say that next guy, that defensive player, I would say right now it’s T.J. Watt,” Donald said. “If you’re talking about that’s doing it year in, year out, consistently, that’s going to get you 15, 13, damn, 22 sacks. He’s the one that’s been doing it consistently.

“Interceptions every year. Touchdowns. His stats are ridiculous every single year. I feel like he’s that guy to me. I know you’ve got Micah Parsons coming up. Myles Garrett. You’ve got a bunch of good players. But from the time I first saw T.J. Watt to the last year, he’s consistently been dominating in this league. Just a lot of respect for him, and I think he’s that guy.”

Aaron Donald on TJ Watt being the Best Defensive player in the NFL:

“If you talk about a guy that’s consistent. Been doing it year in year out consistently that’s gonna get you 15 sacks 13 sacks damn 22 sacks consistent. His stats be ridiculous every single year.”#steelers… pic.twitter.com/d9fcRavYpE

— Matthew Luciow (@matthewluciow92) April 5, 2024

Donald made sure to give Watt his flowers in his retirement video last month, as well.

“I would say T.J. Watt. He’s another guy that’s consistently been doing it, every single year,” Donald told his wife Erica. “He’s a guy that’s gonna consistently get 15 sacks for you, 20 TFLs. Probably two interceptions, maybe a touchdown for sure.”

Donald also mentioned that Watt has been snubbed for the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award a few times. Watt finished second to Donald’s in DPOY voting in 2020, but Donald didn’t claim that he wasn’t deserving of the award over Watt that year. He probably was referring to 2019 and especially this past season when Myles Garrett won DPOY over Watt.

“I felt like he should have won a couple more Defensive Player (of the Year Awards), he kind of got snubbed a couple times, I ain’t gonna lie,” he said.

Watt put up better numbers in almost every major statistical category than Garrett in 2023. The Browns star pass rusher edged Watt out in Pro Football Focus’ overall grading and pass rush win rate metric, however. Some voters like Peter King hold that in high regard, hence why he voted for him.

Watt had 68 tackles, compared to Garrett’s 42. Watt had 19 tackles for loss compared to Garrett’s 17. Watt had 36 quarterback hits compare to 30 for Garrett. Each had four forced fumbles, but Watt had three recoveries compared to Garrett’s one. Watt also returned one of those fumbles for the only defensive touchdown of the season between the two players, which happened to be the game-sealing play in the Week 2 game between the Steelers and Browns at Acrisure Stadium.

The Steelers’ defensive captain had 19 sacks this season and set a modern NFL record as the first player to lead the league in sacks for a third time since it became an official statistic back in 1982. Deacon Jones of the Los Angeles Rams unofficially led the league in sacks five times in the 1960s.