When it comes to T.J. Watt, the only thing that’s growing faster than his salary is his stature in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room.
On the field, Watt has established himself as a centerpiece of the franchise. With training camp for the 2021 season underway, it’s almost inarguable that Watt is the Steelers’ best player. He soon — in all likelihood — will become the team’s highest-paid player ever.
Off the field, he is one of the Steelers’ most marketable stars, rivaled perhaps only by JuJu Smith-Schuster or Ben Roethlisberger in terms of nationwide profile.
But as Watt enters his fifth NFL season, his leadership role for the Steelers has increased by leaps and bounds.
Understated by nature — even as a two-time finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year — Watt blended into the background of a roster that had more than its share of veterans and vocal leaders. But after the offseason departure of a host of teammates with big personalities, Watt is front-and-center in the Steelers’ pecking order.
“He’s our spokesman for our team,” Smith-Schuster said of Watt this week. “He speaks not by actions. He doesn’t just talk the talk. He walks the walk. That’s someone you want in your locker room.”
Fifty-two days until Steelers-imposed deadline to ink a contract extension with superstar outside linebacker T.J. Watt. Will it get done? https://t.co/3wx9A9rykq
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) July 23, 2021
Make no mistake, Watt was never an anonymous wallflower. He was an all-Big Ten talent who was a first-round pick with a famous older brother who rarely shuns the spotlight. T.J. has joined three-time defensive player of the year J.J. (and Steelers fullback Derek) in chuckle-inducing national commercials hawking hoagies.
But from the time he was a rookie until last season, Watt was in a locker room that included, among others, Maurkice Pouncey, Vince Williams, Bud Dupree, David DeCastro, Alejandro Villanueva, Vance McDonald and Steven Nelson. Each retired, was released or left as a free agent this spring.
That makes Watt’s intangible, leadership-type qualities more valuable than ever.
“I think he likes the role,” defensive coordinator Keith Butler said. “As long as he likes it, I’m fine with it. All of us will be fine with it because he’s a good player. He just doesn’t talk about it. He does it on the field. So if he’s capable of doing it on the field, he’ll get a lot more respect from his teammates and the guys around him, and they kind of see that in him.
“(Leadership) is not something that he’s being assessed about or anything like that. He’s a quiet guy. He’s a confident guy in terms of what he’s doing and stuff like that. He’ll be a good leader for us.”
In an illustration of just how quickly Watt is scaling the Steelers’ hierarchy, consider that last season, his salary-cap hit was 14th-highest on the team. This season, no one is due to make more ($10.1 million) in base salary.
In 2020, among the team’s 24 starters (counting specialists), Watt ranked ahead of only six in terms of years of NFL experience.
Watt enters 2021 tied for fifth on the team for longest continuous tenure. Only Roethlisberger, Cameron Heyward, Stephon Tuitt and Chris Boswell have been on the roster continuously since before Watt arrived.
Though he was a first-time captain last season, this season Watt’s voice is even more important as the team looks the fill the leadership vacuum left by the departures of Williams, Dupree, Pouncey and DeCastro, in particular.
For his part, Watt pushes aside such talk in a manner not unlike the swim move he has used to get past countless offensive tackles over the years.
“I think every year I am trying to take that next step,” Watt said, “whether it’s on the field, off the field, as a leader.”
Coach Mike Tomlin has, in the past, jokingly referred to Watt as a “lone wolf,” not only because of his naturally subdued nature but because of a tireless work ethic that often has Watt on the field alone doing drills.
“He doesn’t talk a lot,” Tomlin said, “but his words carry weight because of what he’s doing and capable of doing.”
But even in a locker room without the booming voice of Dupree, the intensity of Williams or the cut-up humor of the extroverted Pouncey, Watt still won’t naturally carry a voice that is figuratively — if not literally — louder.
“I think T.J.’s going to be T.J.,” Tomlin said. “And we appreciate him for that.”
Even if Watt doesn’t change with regard to his off-field work, continuing to provide what he’s done on it will suit the Steelers just fine.
A two-time All Pro and three-time Pro Bowl honoree since 2018, Watt in 2020 was just the third NFL player over the past 15 years to have at least 15 sacks, 23 tackles for loss and 41 QB hits in the same season.
He believes he can be better.
“There’s so much meat left on the bone,” said Watt, who over the next six weeks is eligible to sign a contract extension that could value well more than $100 million. “Knowing there’s a lot of reps and a lot of situations that I wish I could have had back and performed better, I’m just trying to put the work in day in and day out and take no days off.”
Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.
Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at cadamski@triblive.com or via Twitter .
"looking" - Google News
July 25, 2021 at 04:58AM
https://ift.tt/2Tx2Dz5
Normally subdued T.J. Watt looking to take on bigger leadership role with Steelers - TribLIVE
"looking" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2tdCiJt
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Normally subdued T.J. Watt looking to take on bigger leadership role with Steelers - TribLIVE"
Post a Comment