T.J. Watt outpaces every NFL edge rusher by a mile in PFF's chip percentage

If you think T.J. Watt is having a down year, I want to stop you right there. Don't buy into the lie that a player's value is solely tied to their production on the football field. This couldn't be further from the case for the Pittsburgh Steelers star.

When you look at Watt's raw numbers, there's nothing to write home about. The four-time First-Team All-Pro edge rusher is on the pace for just over 13.5 sacks this year. This would be his fifth-highest sack total since coming into the league as a first-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

But there's a reason for this... and one that actually benefits the team.

Thanks to a new stat from Pro Football Focus, we have data that shows us how often Watt is being 'chipped' at the line of scrimmage. A chip occurs when a player is blocked by a tight end, running back, or receiver before passing the edge rusher off to the offensive tackle.

Watt leads the NFL in a category of his own entering Week 9. According to PFF, Watt has been chipped on 31.6 percent of his pass rush snaps in 2024. The next highest mark is Myles Garrett with a 21.9 percent chip rate.

From there, chip percentages fell drastically, before suffering a high-ankle sprain, Micah Parsons was chipped on 16.81 percent of pass-rush snaps. Meanwhile, Nick Bosa has been chipped just 13.92 percent of the time, Aidan Hutchinson at 13.64 percent (before the season-ending injury), and Trey Hendrickson at 12.39 percent.

What's remarkable is that Watt has been chipped on a whopping 85 snaps this season. This is nearly double the next-highest mark in the NFL, which is Maxx Crosby with 47 chips entering Week 9.

The attention T.J. Watt draws is great for Steelers' defense

We can visibly see that Watt's numbers are down, and he's not going to have the record-setting sack totals we saw in 2021. However, I'd argue that he's having one of the best seasons of his NFL career.

While Watt isn't putting up elite numbers in terms of pressures, sacks, or win rates, he's drawing an unprecedented amount of attention from opposing offenses. With offenses constantly devoting two men to take Pittsburgh's best player out of the game, this has allowed guys like Alex Highsmith and Nick Herbig to feast (when healthy).

When teams do elect to leave their right tackle on an island with T.J. Watt, the football is almost always coming out hot. Quarterbacks are well aware of Watt's game-wrecking ability, and they don't dare hold onto the ball too long in the pocket when Watt is left alone.

This allows for fewer opportunities for Watt to get after the quarterback, but it also limits the upside of the opposing offense. Instead of taking the time to go through progressions, the ball is usually out of the QB's hands in under two seconds when Watt is left on an island. This limits big plays and explosive drives.

Pittsburgh's defense isn't perfect, and we would love it if T.J. Watt could put up unmatched numbers like we saw from him early in his career. However, the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year is getting chipped at a remarkable rate, and the attention he's drawing benefits the rest of the Steelers' defense.