Watt to do without T.J.?: Steelers think they are better prepared to handle injuries to their defensive star

By now, every NFL fan has seen some version or another of the Pittsburgh Steelers statistics when T.J. Watt plays and when he doesn’t.

They were 8-2 with Watt in the lineup last year. They were 1-6 without him. The defense allowed less than 17 points per game when Watt suited up. It yielded 25.3 points per game during the seven contests he missed with a pec injury. There were 32 sacks in games that he played, eight sacks when he was on the shelf.

The @steelers were 8-2 and allowed 16.9 pts/gm w/ @_TJWatt in 2022.

Pittsburgh allowed 100 fewer total yards/gm and four times as many sacks and nearly four times as many takeaways with Watt as they did without Watt.#BertschyBits#CLEvsPIT #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/yGC1YKiQaB

— Michael Bertsch (@SteelersPRMike) January 9, 2023

In his career, the Steelers are 56-26-2 in games when the All-Pro outside linebacker is in uniform and 1-10 without him. In many of those losses and ties while he was active in his Defensive Player of the Year season of 2021 — like regular season games against Vegas, Detroit, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Green Bay and Minnesota — Watt was playing injured or left the game early.

Now Watt is looking forward to getting through 2023 with as clean of a slate as possible when it comes to his personal health.

“It’s just about getting back to who I am and playing fast and not having any nagging or lagging injury from years past. I feel really good — back to playing fast, playing physical, and just feeling natural playing football, which is what I’m back to doing,” Watt told the NFL Network Tuesday.

But Watt — and the Steelers as a team — can do everything in the world possible to aid him in avoiding injury in 2023, and it still might happen. Look at rookie cornerback Cory Trice suffering a knee injury on the very first day without pads on Tuesday.

So, while it may sound fatalistic, the Steelers have to approach this year from the standpoint of planning for when Watt gets hurt, as opposed to reacting if Watt gets hurt.

If the stars align and he plays all 68 quarters of all 17 games injury free, wonderful. But, given the physical nature of Watt’s game, in the likely circumstance that the 28-year-old superstar does miss some time, the defense must be better girded for that eventuality.

Second-year defensive coordinator Teryl Austin says that responsibility lies on his desk.

“We want to be better if that scenario happens to us again and we lose him for any stretch of time,” Austin said on Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting guys in position to make some plays and doing some different things. And I think that it was a good learning experience for us last year to see where we came up short and what we have to do better. … We’ve got to adapt.”

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That ability to adapt may be heightened by some personnel moves this offseason.

• Free agent signee Markus Golden is a bigger, more physical upgrade as a backup outside linebacker than what the team had last year in Malik Reed. Plus, rookie draft choice Nick Herbig is having a good training camp so far and could provide some splash plays when called upon.

“I come from an outside 3-4 system (in Arizona), where the outside linebackers drop a little bit. But you get off the edge, fly around, and try to make plays. This system is a lot like that,” Golden said Tuesday.

• The Steelers seem to think the trio of Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander and Elandon Roberts will be better than what they had last year in Myles Jack, Devin Bush and Robert Spillane.

• A deeper and more versatile secondary may be able to hold coverage longer so the pass rushers have an extra tick to get to the quarterback.

• Improved depth along the defensive line with new players such as Keeanu Benton, Breiden Fehoko and Armon Watts should keep starters like Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi fresher, especially in the pass-rush game.

“I think we bolstered ourselves with the addition of Markus — who is really good — and I think our young guys, like Nick Herbig, (are) going to help us because we have a couple of guys we think can generate some pass rush,” Austin said. “T.J. impacts so many areas. But the one area that he really impacts is getting after the passer. When you lose that, you’ve got to have somebody that can step up, and I think we’ve added to that this year. I think we’ll be a little bit better in that regard if we lose (Watt) and have to go that route.”

Watt joked a few times during this offseason about how Herbig is stealing all of his pass-rush moves. For his part, Herbig is ready to embrace the challenge of replicating Watt in a game, even if that responsibility is heaped on his shoulders in his first year.

At least he already has his “Tomlinisms” memorized.

“If something unfortunate happens and (Watt) goes down, I need to keep the standard. There is no such thing as ‘just because you are a rookie.’ The standard is the standard,” Herbig said.

Another player who bears responsibility for keeping the defense afloat whenever Watt goes absent is Alex Highsmith. The second starter at outside linebacker just signed a $68 million contract extension. He is coming off his best season with 14½ sacks. But the onus on Highsmith will be proving he is just as much of a threat without Watt in the lineup as he is when he is opposite the five-time Pro Bowler.

That way, protections will slide his way often enough that it may allow Golden or Herbig to do damage on the other side of the field in one-on-one blocking situations.

“My best ball is ahead of me. I feel like I can play way better than I did last year,” Highsmith said after Tuesday’s practice. “It’s effort over scheme. It’s about the guys we have out there.”

The guy that matters the most wears No. 90. And if he goes down, it may take a little from every other guy to replace him. Certainly more than what they have gotten over the past two years.

Austin and those Steelers players seem anxious to prove that. Yet, at the same time, the hope is that they rarely have the chance to do so.

Listen: Tim Benz discusses the 2023 Steelers defense with coordinator Teryl Austin.