When the Pittsburgh Steelers signed T.J. Watt to a record contract extension last offseason, they certainly had high hopes. Hopes that weren\u2019t realized to the full extent in 2025. However, former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth remains high on Watt, ranking him among the NFL\u2019s top-10 players.<\/p>\n
\u201cNumber nine, I love watching this dude play. Probably should have him higher,\u201d Schlereth said Friday on his Stinkin Truth podcast<\/a>. \u201cT.J. Watt is a dude where every time you break the huddle, you gotta find out where that guy is. Plays exceptionally hard, unbelievable. Not only from upfield, getting you with speed, but also his counter moves getting back inside. But I think he\u2019s one of those guys that\u2019s just a complete player. I think he\u2019ll play the run, I think he\u2019ll do everything for you as a football player\u2026Great top-10 player in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n For clarity, Schlereth\u2019s list doesn\u2019t include quarterbacks. Schlereth remarked that they \u201cdo not play football, they play quarterback.\u201d Watt would have surely finished lower on his list had it included quarterbacks. Although he did rank Watt as the league\u2019s second-best edge rusher<\/a> earlier this offseason.<\/p>\n Still, being named the ninth-best non-quarterback in the NFL is no small honor. Schlereth listed Watt just ahead of Derwin James and just behind Saquon Barkley and Kyle Hamilton, who came in eighth and seventh respectively. Watt is certainly in the company of some elite playmakers on this list.<\/p>\n Given his production throughout his career, it\u2019s no surprise Watt earns respect like this. But if he really is one of the best players in the league, his 2025 season didn\u2019t show it. Including seasons in which he\u2019s played at least 14 games, Watt tied his lowest sack total with seven and his lowest TFL total with 10.<\/p>\n But there is some reason for optimism, and a chance that season was an outlier. Watt dealt with a freak lung injury late in the year, which certainly broke up some momentum. He was also part of a defense that struggled for a large portion of the year. If he can stay healthy, he might benefit from new DC Patrick Graham\u2019s scheme, which figures to be much more flexible<\/a>. And for what it\u2019s worth, the splash plays haven\u2019t gone anywhere. Watt still forced three fumbles last year and came away with two interceptions.<\/p>\n Some of the facts are hard to argue against. They paint a picture of Watt\u2019s production decreasing steadily since the 2023 season, and he\u2019ll turn 32 in October. While he certainly is capable of bouncing back, there\u2019s no guarantee he will. Even so, Schlereth\u2019s confidence in Watt doesn\u2019t seem to be going anywhere.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Pittsburgh Steelers signed T.J. Watt to a record contract extension last offseason, they certainly had high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,368822,593,85,1284,368823],"class_list":["post-778377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mark-schlereth","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-t-j-watt","tag-the-stinkin-truth-podcast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}