Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt earned the Defensive Player of the Year award last season while tying the NFL’s all-time sack record of 22.5. But Watt doesn’t view himself as the best player in his own family just yet.
Asked on the Pivot Podcast, who is the better player, he or brother J.J. Watt -- currently playing with the Arizona Cardinals -- T.J. said he still doesn’t stack up to J.J.’s career.
“This is like a real thing. I do think it’s misconstrued…I want people to understand how great my brother truly was in his prime,” Watt said. “I think it gets lost today, and I know he’d be upset if I said this, but I think it truly is. You go back, and you look, you watch the film, the guy was frickin’ unstoppable. Absolutely unstoppable. He’ll never say it, but it’s like, I think people need to go back and look at that. The guy was doing incredible things for four or five years, and I think he can still play at a high level. I think I’m too early in my career to compare myself to him at the moment, honestly.”
J.J. Watt won three DPOY awards (2012, 2014, 2015) and finished second in MVP voting in 2014. The elder Watt generated two seasons of 20.5 sacks (2012, 2014) and added another 17.5 sack campaign in 2015. He mauled dudes and wreaked havoc during his heyday in Houston. Injuries have derailed the Herculean human, relegating him to eight or fewer games in four of the past six years.
T.J. Watt is off to a hot start in his career, earning 72.0 sacks in his first five seasons. It’s the third-most all-time in a player’s first five NFL seasons, behind Reggie White’s 81 and -- you guessed it -- J.J. Watt’s 74.5.
T.J. is correct. He’s not to his brother’s level yet. But there is time for the younger sibling to chase him down.
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