It’s a sad day for Pittsburgh Steelers fans and it just got worse. Here’s why the prognosis of T.J. Watt’s injury is not encouraging.
It’s bad enough that Steelers fans had to stomach the thought of tying with worst team in the NFL in game that otherwise could have catapulted them to the top seed in the AFC North. Now we are left to pick up the pieces, and our most important player is injured.
You could hear a pin drop at Heinz Field when All-Pro pass rusher T.J. Watt went down writhing in pain and grasping his left knee after sacking quarterback Jared Goff in Week 10. Though we initially feared the worse, fans were encouraged to see Watt moving around on his own power on the sidelines following the incident.
Unfortunately, the most recent injury update from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is not as encouraging as I would have hoped. Rapoport confirms that Watt is dealing with both a hip and knee injury and that the prognosis is week-to-week. Here’s what he had to say about Pittsburgh’s star defender:
"[T.J. Watt] went to the blue tent after getting hit on the side of his knee by a teammate… and it was acutally a hip and knee injury, so a multitude of injuries for T.J. Watt. He’s going to have an MRI today on all of his injuries, but from what I understand, he is considered week-to-week. That means he is expected to miss some time. We’ll see if he has to miss multiple weeks or whether or not the Steelers put him on injured/reserve to return. Doesn’t seem like it’s sesaon-ending, but week-to-week for T.J. Watt."
While these injuries shouldn’t threaten Watt’s season, they are very concerning — especially considering the strength of Pittsburgh’s schedule down the stretch.
By the looks of things, Watt will at least be absent on Sunday Night Football next week when the Steelers travel to Los Angeles to face the Chargers. The Steelers then have daunting matchups against the Bengals, Ravens, Vikings, Titans, and Chiefs before closing the season with the Browns and Ravens once more after the new year.
Though he has appeared in just 8 games this season and missed extended time in two others, Watt has still somehow managed to garner 12.5 sacks, 13 tackles for a loss, and 20 quarterback hits in limited action this year in addition to forcing 3 fumbles and recovering 2 others, via Pro Football Reference.
For a team that has so many offensive struggles this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers can ill-afford to be without their best football player for any stretch of time. T.J. Watt is the engine that makes this team run, and we will need him back healthy as soon as possible if we want to make a playoff push.