The Steelers are hoping the brother of J.J. Watt is as close to as good as the Houston Texans all-world defensive player is.
That’s because Thursday night in the NFL Draft, the Steelers put their eggs in T.J. Watt’s basket, making him their first-round pick, hoping he’ll add some big time pressure on the quarterback from the outside linebacker spot.
Watt finished with 11.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss last season for Wisconsin after struggling through injuries earlier in his collegiate career. He started as a tight end before switching to linebacker.
The 6-foot-4, 252-pound Watt joins an outside linebacker group that includes James Harrison, who turns 39 next week, and 2015 first-round pick Bud Dupree.
This is the fourth time in the last five drafts the Steelers have taken a linebacker with their top pick, and with Jarvis Jones gone in free agency, they are hoping that Watt will pick up the slack and be even better than what they got from Jones.
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Dave B.
April 28, 2017 at 9:03 am
The Steelers needed an outside backer who can rush the passer and this kid can . Hes got a motor that runs nonstop so effort will never be an issue with him as well . Bring him in and let him watch one of the greatest to ever play the game in James Harrison and this kid will be a force to be reckoned with .
Jay
April 28, 2017 at 9:31 pm
Ok, two rants…one nothing to do with steelers…second, everything to do with us…First, the Bengals are a joke for taking Joe Mixon…NOTHING to do with the abuse…everything to do with the abysmal awareness set…YOU ALREADY HAVE BERNARD AND JEREMY HILL!!!! if you not happy with jeremy hill, that’s a YOU thing Cincinnati.
Now, for us, we sat back (not knowing who we picked yet in the second round) and, at one point, there were six teams ahead of us and FIVE of them needed DB’s and Owuze was still on the board…AND WE, as always, fail to move up because of our confounded philosophy of coveting EVERY pick because EVERY pick is sacred. Dallas snatches him up ahead of us! our draft is a joke. oh, okay, I just saw we drafted schuster from USC. a WR. Whatever. way to stand pat and let a great DB prospect just fall to calls or someone else. everyone will say in the organization that they wanted Schuster all along. I hate the pick. thats why our secondary sucks because we sit back and let OTHERS take the better players just so we have DEPTH! maybe if we didn’t draft a pothead in bryant in the fourth round, we wouldn’t need another WR because we’d a drafted someone reliable and then we can move up and grab a stud like Owuze from Colorado! Go ahead DAVE B tell me I’m down on the team, but what I speak in the truth.
Jay
April 29, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Josh Dobbs?!? AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH—HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Wasn’t Butt still out there and CB King or even Pederman from Pitt! Wow! I’m so glad we have all these accolades (tongue in cheek) to fall back on as Steelers fans!
Jay
April 29, 2017 at 3:28 pm
This just in…Rest of the NFL, if you want to grab someone Pittsburgh is looking at, simply jump up in front of them and take whoever you want, because the Steelers always stand pat and let good players slip away. Every draft pick, much like the sperm in Monty python, is sacred! But I’m sure you all already knew that!