T.J. Watt on the art, science of batting passes, at which Steelers excel

There were 81 batted down passes in the NFL through nine weeks of this season, according to Pro Football Focus. Teammates T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward, by themselves, have accounted for almost 10% of them.

Heyward’s five plus Watt’s three in addition to two from Chris Wormley gave the Pittsburgh Steelers a league-best 10 such plays. And to hear that manner with which Watt in detail discusses the art of getting your hands on thrown balls when in pass-rushing mode, that’s no coincidence.

“There is so much going on in a play in your head,” Watt said after practice Friday, “that it all just kind of culminates in getting your hands up at a certain point.”

Watt had the Steelers’ only batted-down pass during last week’s win against the Chicago Bears. But that Heyward lacked one on the PFF statsheet is only because he went a step further and intercepted a Justin Fields pass from a range typically associated with batting balls down.

Watt, Heyward and Stephon Tuitt were three of the 33 NFL players credited with at least three batted-down passes last season. Watt was tied for fourth in the league with four, and he was tied for second in 2019 with six. Heyward tied for fifth-most that season with five, and Wormley (then playing for the Baltimore Ravens) tied for most in the league in 2018 with eight.

Most batted passes among edge defenders in 2019

T.J. Wattpic.twitter.com/7x0Tw0R2WT

— PFF (@PFF) June 6, 2020

Over the past three seasons combined, per PFF, Watt leads the NFL in batted-down passes. He said “there’s not one thing that you can really pinpoint” in what makes for effective strategy in batting passes down.

“It’s a combination of a lot of things,” he said of what goes into the skill. “Knowing what kind of coverage you are getting in the back end, knowing down and distance, formations, structures, knowing if it’s quick passes, stuff like that. And it also comes down to just getting your eyes on the quarterback, rushing through the man. If you know you’re not really getting much traction, you have your internal clock, just like a quarterback does, at some point you just have to say, ‘Screw the rush’ and just get your hands up.”

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