T.J. Watt was the 30th overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, but teams would be sure not to make that mistake again. Here’s where the Steelers star goes in a re-draft.
I vividly remember watching the 2017 NFL Draft, hoping that T.J. Watt would miraculously fall to the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 30th overall pick. With a plethora of edge defender-needy teams selecting ahead of them, I didn’t think there was much chance of this happening.
Watt was gaining steam throughout the offseason thanks to a strong NFL Combine and remarkable testing numbers. It was easy to see how would be a perfect fit for the Steelers and these are the type of high-upside selections I covet.
While Myles Garrett was a lock to be the first overall selection by the Cleveland Browns, somehow seven total edge defenders were selected ahead of Watt in the 2017 draft, and he fell into Pittsburgh’s lap.
I can assure you that NFL teams would not make that mistake again. Recently, Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report published his 2017 NFL re-draft. As you can imagine, Watt was selected significantly higher.
With the fourth overall pick in the 2017 NFL re-draft, Davenport had the Jacksonville Jaguars going with T.J. Watt — a player we now know as a three-time First-Team All-Pro defender and the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year.
This is a massive upgrade from what Jacksonville selected, in reality, five years ago. The Jaguars went with running back, Leonard Fournette — a player who couldn’t even make it through his rookie contract with the team before he was released. While we will never have to see this scenario play out (thankfully), Watt could have changed the whole dynamic of the Jaguars offense.
Just three players were selected ahead of Watt in the re-draft, and you could make an argument that he should have gone even higher. Patrick Mahomes went to the Brown with the first pick in the re-draft. This is unarguable, as Cleveland gets the QB they’ve desperately been searching for all these years.
With the second overall pick, the 49ers selected Myles Garrett in the 2017 re-draft. This is where things get interesting, as Watt has been more productive and has earned more accolades since entering the league. Personally, I don’t think you could go wrong with either, but you could make a case for Watt with as high as the second overall pick.
Deshaun Watson then goes third to the Bears in a re-draft — a team that has been desperately searching for a quarterback for as long as I remember.
While there were some other really good players from this draft (like Cooper Kupp, Tre’Davious White, and Marshon Lattimore), I agree that Watt would be selected no later than the fourth overall pick if teams were given the chance to do it over again.
Steelers select CB in the 2017 re-draft
Anything outside of getting one of the top-four players in this draft would be a colossal disappointment after having T.J. Watt these past five years. However, in a re-draft, the star defensive player is long gone.
With the 30th overall pick, the Steelers land a solid, yet spectacular cornerback in Chibobe Awuzie. The Bengals CB was once a second-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys. Though he has been a quality starter, it’s hard to even call this a nice consolation prize when compared to Watt.
Interestingly, former Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster went 23rd in this re-draft to the New York Giants. This is despite the fact that he missed a majority of the 2021 season with a shoulder injury and his production and efficiency have dipped since a breakout season in 2018.
The good news is that these re-drafts are strictly hypothetical, and I doubt we will ever have to live in a world where T.J. Watt isn’t a Pittsburgh Steeler. Our team hasn’t gotten every pick right over the years, but this will go down as one of the best selections Kevin Colbert ever made.