T.J. Watt is one of the most dominant pass rushers in the NFL. He\u2019s the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 all-time sack leader, and considering their history on defense, that says a lot. If Watt walked away from the game today, he\u2019d likely find himself inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame sooner rather than later. However, he\u2019s not perfect. There are ways minimize his impact Watt. San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle recently explained how his team tried to limit Watt when it played Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a couple d-linemen that are always fun to play against,\u201d Kittle said recently on the Back of the Bus from Bussin\u2019 with the Boys podcast. \u201cJ.J. Watt was really fun to play against when he was with the Cardinals a couple of times because he just talks the whole game. And then T.J. is fun too because we chipped on him every single play. We played them in Pittsburgh two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won the game, but we chipped him every play except for three plays, and on those three plays, he had three sacks. And we chipped him the whole game, and he\u2019s so mad the whole game. He\u2019s like, \u2018Dude, leave me alone.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Never.\u2019 It\u2019s like, \u2018You\u2019re mine, baby. You\u2019re mine.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The Steelers played the 49ers to open the 2023 season, and it went exactly like Kittle said. Pittsburgh got crushed, losing 30-7. However, Watt had an excellent day, posting three sacks. He was one of the Steelers\u2019 lone bright spots, but the 49ers tried to be as prepared for Watt as they could be.<\/p>\n
At this point in his career, getting chipped or double-teamed isn\u2019t anything new for Watt. It\u2019s one of the only ways to slow him down. Otherwise, he wrecks the game.<\/p>\n
That was on display multiple times last year. In Week 1, Watt looked like he couldn\u2019t be blocked after the Atlanta Falcons left RT Kaleb McGary on an island against him for most of the game. McGary is a fine player, but being one-on-one with Watt isn\u2019t ideal for most players.<\/p>\n
Just as well, there were several instances last season where Watt was less effective. That was because of the attention teams threw his way. Watt was held without a sack over the last three weeks of the 2024 season, opposing offenses scheming him out of games.<\/p>\n
That seemed to frustrate Watt, too. He sounds committed to finding a way to stop that from happening again, which could include him moving around the defense more.<\/p>\n
Whatever the case, it\u2019s clear that other teams are employing the same strategy that the 49ers used to limit Watt. Therefore, he and the Steelers need to find a counter. Watt is their best player, and they\u2019re much more likely to win games when he\u2019s impactful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
George Kittle talks about why he had fun playing against T.J. Watt in 2023, explaining how the 49ers tried to limit the star pass rusher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":64439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"yoast_head":"\n