Steelers players hit personal bests and odd milestones in back-to-back wins
For a team critics claim has an anemic offense, The Steelers young quarterback Kenney Pickett has been able to post some personal milestones in his last two games against the Browns on Monday night in Week 2 and against the Raiders on Sunday this past Sunday night. T.J. Watt achieved defensive milestones as well.
As a team, the previous two games have produced more odd stats, as we have become accustomed to every week. Here are all of the personal achievements and unusual stats we have witnessed over the past two weeks.
T.J. Watt Milestone
In the Monday night game against the Cleveland Browns, T.J. Watt surpassed James Harrison to become the Steelers all-time sack leader. This is an amazing feat because he is now placed number one over some amazing pass rushers in Steelers history. He tops Joe Greene, L.C. Greenwood, Dwight White, James Harrison, and Cam Heyward, to name a few.
The next feat for T.J. Watt is to surpass the NFL single-season all-time sack record in which he shares the record in a tie with Michael Strahan at 22.5. T.J. Watt added two more sacks against the Raiders, giving him 6 for the season. In order to break the single-season sack record, T.J. Watt needs to average 1.214 sacks for the remainder of the season to become the NFL's all-time single-season sack leader.
To surpass the all-time NFL career sack record, he must surpass Bruce Smith, who has 195.5. Watt currently has 83.5. He needs 111.5 more sacks to become the best ever in the NFL. Considering Bruce Smith played 18 seasons, reaching this benchmark would be daunting. However, the NFL has expanded to the 17-game season; thus, T.J. Watt gets one extra game per season, which Bruce Smith did not have. He can break the all-time sack record in seven more seasons at his current pace.
If T.J. Watt can get 23 sacks by the end of this season, he becomes one of the top 30 sack recorders of all time. He would move into a tie with Pat Swilling and Dwight Freeney with 100-plus sacks. If he gets 15-20 sacks in 2024, he could be in the top 20. Thus, he could break the all-time sack record if he can play for 15 seasons.