Steelers Star T.J. Watt Has His Own Playoff Baggage to Overcome
PITTSBURGH — Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has not won a playoff game since 2016, going 0-5 since beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2016 Divisional Playoffs.
That is not exactly news to most. Steelers’ playoff struggles have been the dominant talking point around the team for several years now, and they’ll likely intensify if the Steelers lose to the Baltimore Ravens in the Wild Card round on Saturday, making it six straight playoff losses and also ending the 2024 season on a five-game losing streak.
Asked about that stretch on Monday, Tomlin said that he alone bears the faults and responsibilities for the team’s lengthy playoff failures, and by and larger, that’s true. The only Steelers that are still on this team that were on that 2016 team in Kansas City are Cam Heyward and Chris Boswell. Tyler Matakevich left and came back. Ryan Shazier and Vince Williams are now coaches.
The entirety of that stretch, for whatever it is worth, belongs to Tomlin, and he made sure to make that clear on Monday.
“What you mentioned is my story, it’s not this collective’s story,” Tomlin said. “Many of these guys involved do not tote those bags. I happily tote those bags, but it’s not something that I’m going to project on the collective.”
But there’s at least one big part of the collective that has its own playoff demons to battle.
If you know that the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2016, then you also know that outside linebacker T.J. Watt, the team’s first-round draft pick in the 2017 season, hasn’t won one.
“It’s my story,” Watt said on Thursday. “Since I’ve been here, I haven’t won a playoff game. I’ve been saying it this whole season. You guys know how important this is to me.”
Since joining the Steelers, Watt has been one of the best, if not the best defensive player in the entire NFL. Watt is a seven-time Pro Bowler. Sometime later this month, he’ll be named an All-Pro for the sixth time. He’s led the NFL in sacks three times, which is an NFL record, in addition to his NFL-record-tying 22.5 sacks in 2021, when he won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award.
But Watt has not necessarily lived up to that standard in the postseason. He’s been on the team for the last four playoff losses. He’s played in three of those games, missing last year’s loss to the Buffalo Bills after being injured the previous week against the Ravens.
In the three playoffs games he has played, Watt has six tackles, one sack, three tackles for loss, three passes defended and a fumble recovery. Those aren’t exactly Defensive Player of the Year numbers.
The Steelers have been in some situations that have limited Watt’s effectiveness. Against Jacksonville in 2018 and Cleveland in 2021, the Steelers got into big early holes that limited the amount of throwing the opposition did the rest of the way. Very few Steelers-Ravens games go according to that script.
Watt has 56 tackles, 22 tackles for loss and 17 sacks in 16 career games against the Ravens, his most prolific numbers against a single opponents.
This is as good of a matchup as Watt is going to get in terms of a chance to reverse his fortunes in the post season, make an impact that matches his resume, and stop the Steelers overall playoff streak.
He seems to be aware of what’s at stake this week.
“I say all the time that there’s a big difference between guys that come back that are Super Bowl champions and guys that aren’t,” Watt said. “That’s not a slight at the guys that aren’t. I’m one of those guys right now. But there’s definitely an aura and a sense to a guy that has won a Super Bowl. There’s a togetherness, a close-knit group of guys that when they come back for those alumni weekends, they hang out and they bond and they talk about their successes on and off the field and that Super Bowl run.
“We want that. Every guy in here wants that. Don’t confuse any of this lack of success for lack of effort. Everybody’s trying. We’re turning over every stone that we possibly can to be great. We want to be great. We just need to do it together. That’s not saying that we haven’t, but we just need to do everything collectively and play complimentary football when the time matters most. There’s definitely a sense of urgency because this is the playoffs in the National Football League. This is what everybody plays the game for.”
It is what everyone plays for, and with the road getting narrow on the 2024 season, and big questions about how the future of the Steelers will look potentially riding on the results of this week’s game, it’s a big one in more ways than one for players like T.J. Watt.
Aaron Becker contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.
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