Steelers Star Eyeing Prestigious Award Once Again
TJ Watt has become one of the most polarizing players in football. There’s no defensive player in the league with the ability he has to take over games at the snap of a finger. Unfortunately, Jim from Cleveland will tell you how Watt only gets cleanup sacks and never faces double teams like Myles Garrett, the guy that Browns fans seem to believe is the first player in NFL history to see double teams on the defensive line.
While Myles Garrett is a tremendous talent, he just isn’t on Watt’s level this year. Theres numbers to tell you that and we’re not talking about Pass Rush Win Rate and all those other bull jive stats that PFF tries to force down our throats. It’s football. Watch games and assess players based on the stats they put up, not hypothetical analytics and pretend statistics.
The Great Debate
It’s been a talking point on the app formerly known as Twitter for years now. Garrett vs. Watt will always get engagement online and people know that. It gets exhausting sometimes, but it’s also hard to watch Watt get disrespected by so many people. Even the NFL has been pushing the Myles Garrett agenda on their socials all year at an insane rate.
As stated before, Garrett is an insane football player. He’s an alien. He's an absolute gamewrecker at times, but there are other times it feels like he’s not even on the field, like during Super Wild Card Weekend against the Texans, where he did nothing. That’s not the case with Watt. Watt had as many sacks in week 18 as Garrett did in the final six weeks of the season. Watt has now led the NFL in sacks three times in his career, the first player to ever accomplish the feat. What has Myles Garrett done, being the league leader in being featured in PFF tweets?
Numbers Never Lie
While Garrett has put together quite the season for himself, he trails Watt in legitimately every major statistic. Watt posted 19 sacks to Garrett's 14. Watt had an interception on the year, but Garrett did not. The Steelers edge defended eight passes on the year to Garrett’s three. They both had four forced fumbles, but Watt had 3 fumble recoveries including one for a touchdown while Garrett had just one fumble recovery.
Should we continue? Watt posted 68 total tackles with 48 being solos. Garrett posted 42 total tackles with 33 being solos. The Steelers star found 19 tackles for loss this year while the Browns star only found 17. Watt registered 36 Quarterback Hits, Garrett just 30. It just doesn’t end. Watt was able to rack up 12 hurries and 50 quarterback pressures to Garrett’s six hurries and 37 quarterback pressures. So is Pro Football Reference lying, or has Garrett just gotten dominated by Watt this season?
Steelers Star Deserves The DPOY
ESPN has already named Watt their Defensive Player of the Year, but we’re waiting for the AP Awards to be announced at the NFL Awards. The last time an edge rusher led the NFL in sacks and didn’t win the DPOY award? When the NFL gave it to Terrell Suggs instead of Jared Allen, who posted 22 sacks that year, nearly breaking the record.
The NFL has made it clear in the past that awards are just a popularity contest at times, which is the overall feeling surrounding the 2023 DPOY award. Despite Watt’s great season, the media continues to hint at Garrett doing things nobody has ever done this year when that's just not the case. The Steelers would be lost without TJ Watt. They’re 1-10 when he doesn’t suit up. That might be more of an argument for the MVP Award, but that's a different discussion for a different time.
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