Steelers are historically bad at generating pressure without T.J. Watt

We knew that the absence of T.J. Watt was going to be huge, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have become historically bad at generating pressure without their best player.

Earlier this year, I shared a statistic in an article that I found astonishing. At the time the Pittsburgh Steelers were set to enter Week 4, their entire wide receiver corps had combined for just 25 yards after the catch. In comparison, Dolphins receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle had already reached 236 yards after the catch during the same span to begin the year.

Recently, I dug up a few more stats that might be equally impressive (in a bad way), but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

As T.J. Watt is set to return to the field for the first time since exiting the Week 1 contest against the Bengals late with a pectoral injury, I did a little research regarding Pittsburgh’s effectiveness in getting after the quarterback this year. My findings were more concerning than I even would have thought.

Entering Week 10 of the NFL season, the Steelers have been able to muster up a pressure rate of just 16.2 percent, according to Stathead.com. For perspective, this ranks 187th of 192 teams since this stat has been measured officially starting in 2017.

What this tells us is something most fans already knew: the Steelers can’t get pressure without T.J. Watt on the field. However, it was a little discouraging to see Pittsburgh ranking near the bottom of the alongside defense like the 2020 Jaguars, the 2017 Browns, and the 2020 Jets. I would have guessed that it was bad, but I didn’t know that their ability to get pressure this year is one of the worst on record.

Steelers could have their lowest sack total of the modern era

Unfortunately, it gets worse. Not only have the Pittsburgh Steelers had major problems getting after the quarterback, but they have also brought down the opposing team’s passer at an alarmingly low rate.

Pittsburgh’s defense has recorded just 15 sacks through their first 8 games. This puts them on pace for just 31.8 sacks for the entire season. Since sacks have been officially recorded, they are on one of their slowest paces for sacks per game by the end of the season. In comparison, this team never recorded fewer than 52 sacks in a year since T.J. Watt was drafted, via ESPN stats.

What’s even more disheartening is this is counting the Steelers opening game against the Bengals — a game in which they were able to sack Joe Burrow a whopping 7 times. If we use the sample of Week 2 until now, they are managing just 1.0 sacks per game — putting them on pace for just 17 on the season. This number would be good for the second-lowest in recorded Steelers history.

Thankfully, things should change in a big way as Watt returns to the field. This team doesn’t seem to have nearly as much trouble getting after the quarterback when he’s active and healthy. However, these concerningly poor statistics do speak volumes to just how bad the defense has been when missing their star player.

So much rides on the health of T.J. Watt. The Steelers have had elite defenses at times with him, but they instantly become one of the worst pass-rushing units when he’s not on the field. Let’s hope he doesn’t suffer any more major injuries in his career.