T.J. Watt wants to stay on the field in 2023. So do the Steelers. And, if he does, their lofty aspirations are far more attainable.
It's obvious that Watt's presence on the field alone makes a huge difference for how the Steelers deploy their defense and how the opposition prepares to attack it. But, what does that look like exactly?
Well, that's honestly too broad of a question as every team has their own way of preparing for such an elite defender. But, across the board, teams have to be far more creative when preparing for Watt. That includes plays purposely designed away from him, along with varying versions of double teams. After all, teams only try to slow down Watt instead of trying to neutralize him. They just need to slow him down long enough to execute each designed play.
But, we did get a bit of an example of what a team might do when they have to prepare for Watt and when they don't have to. Watt missed seven games last season, including the Week 3 trip to Cleveland on a Thursday night. However, Watt was in the lineup when the Steelers hosted the Browns in the season finale.
In case you don't remember, and to no surprise, the Browns won the matchup without Watt and the Steelers were victorious with him in the lineup in Week 18. But, what did the Browns do differently in each of those games? What did the Steelers do differently?
First, one other variable between these games that needs to be mentioned is the Browns' starting quarterback. Jacoby Brissett started in place of Deshaun Watson in Week 3 as Watson was ineligible due to his lengthy suspension. That, of course, affects how the Browns game plan, how often they run vs. pass, and so on.
The first and most obvious difference in Week 3 is the Browns did not double team Malik Reed at all. Not only did that impact the pass rush, but made things much easier for the Browns in running the football. The Browns controlled the clock for more than 36 minutes in this game as they totaled 171 yards on 38 attempts. Anyone who knows football knows an effective running game opens up everything else on offense.
In this play, the right tackle seals off Reed without any trouble:
To be fair, Reed doesn't do anything effectively wrong here as his job is to seal off the edge. Really, Myles Jack is the biggest culprit in this run going for so many yards as he effectively neutralized himself by guessing wrong on the cutback.
That being said, Watt would have likely garnered some more attention, even if it was something as simple as Donovan Peoples-Jones chipping him before going to block Arthur Maulet -- something that teams like to do against Watt when they don't want to sacrifice a full-blown double team.
That's the difference between an ordinary player and an extraordinary player. Teams don't have to do more to defend an average player. In fact, the Browns even left Reed alone with David Njoku or another tight end several times throughout the game, which is something we'd likely not see if Watt were in that spot. In turn, that allows plays like this to become much more likely:
Because Reed is blocked solely by Njoku here, Chris Wormley can be completely neutralized by a double team by the right guard and tackle. In addition, the right tackle even has the opportunity to get off that block and neutralize Robert Spillane, a good run defender in his own right, who read the play pretty well and had a chance to make a tackle for a much shorter gain.
Just imagine Watt being blocked only by a tight end here. Even if he doesn't make the tackle, he could do enough to disrupt the rhythm of the play such as interfering with the pulling guard or forcing Nick Chubb to run wider.
Before we take a look at a couple of plays from the Week 18 matchup, I'll point out the personnel choices in the two games. In Week 3, the Steelers had a defender lined up in the 'A' gap (between the center and guard) 50 percent of the time in 72 total snaps. In Week 18, the Steelers did that less than 16 percent of the time in 64 total snaps. That took place without a massive drop off in Cam Heyward's or Larry Ogunjobi's snap counts, meaning the Steelers lined up with three or more down linemen far more often in Week 3. Montravius Adams and Tyson Alualu combined for 54 snaps in Week 3, but only combined for 26 snaps in Week 18.
Now, here's how the Browns ran things a bit differently when dealing with Watt. First, here's a similar run to the first play we looked at from Week 3. Only this time, the Browns are in a jumbo set with an extra tackle on Watt's side of the field:
The Browns execute this play about as perfectly as can be, and it's still almost blown up by Ogunjobi and Mark Robinson. But, the point of showing this play is what the Browns did differently. Surely, the didn't leave the tight end for Watt. They had an extra tackle and made sure that if they blocked him with just one player, it'd be a tackle.
Of course, the Browns couldn't go the entire game with these types of packages, especially as they trailed for the entirety of the second half. And, even when the Browns were overmatched in certain packages, like this play, they still made it a point to neutralize Watt:
With this play running in Watt's direction, both linemen pull from the left side and double team Watt. Even then, he still finds a way to disrupt Kareem Hunt after the handoff, giving more time for Robinson and Isaiahh Loudermilk to hold the play to the minimal gain.
When the Browns didn't want to double team Watt, specifically on passing downs, this play below perfectly illustrates the risks against the Steelers' pass rush when they have all of their 'A' players on the field:
This is legitimately a 5-on-5 up front. Watt beats his man with his speed and quickness around the edge. Then, when Watson shifts to his left, Heyward beats his man and combines for the sack.
All of these examples are some of the minute details that illustrate how one team will prepare for the Steelers with and without Watt. Sometimes, the glaring evidence suffices as well. In the Steelers' loss in Week 3, Brissett completed 21 of 31 passes for 220 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. In the Steelers' win in Week 18, Watson completed 19 of 29 passes for 230 yards, two touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions.
The Steelers were by no means perfect in their win over the Browns in the season finale as Cleveland totaled 134 yards on 22 attempts, an average of 6.1 yards per attempt. But, Watson was sacked seven times and the Browns committed nine penalties, including an illegal hands to the face penalty on James Hudson against Watt on just the third play of the game. That kind of disruption was something the Steelers genuinely lacked throughout the Week 3 loss to the Browns, especially in the second half when the game got away from them.
Yes, the Steelers surely benefit from having Watt on the field more often. But now, you have a bit of a clearer picture of the actual effect of his presence or lack thereof. Even when Watt isn't 100 percent, as he wasn't for the vast majority of the time after he returned from injury, his presence on the field forces the opposition to run things a bit differently. Even those little wrinkles opens things up for everyone else, not just other star players such as Heyward or Highsmith.