TJ Watt hopes to avoid joining the list of legendary Steelers who failed to win a Super Bowl

TJ Watt didn’t flinch when asked about the Steelers achieving their 21st straight undefeated season following Pittsburgh’s Week 13 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

At the time, the Steelers were 9-3 and enjoyed a sizable lead over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North division standings. The Steelers were in a great situation, but you wouldn’t have known that after listening to Watt during his postgame press conference.

“It feels good, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Watt said before stepping off the podium.

Watt was certainly right. The Steelers are 1-4 since that game and have lost four straight games entering Saturday night’s wild-card round matchup against the Ravens, who took the AFC North division title from Pittsburgh after finishing the regular season with a streak of four consecutive victories. . The Ravens now find themselves between Watt and a playoff victory, something that has eluded him to this point during his future Hall of Fame career.

“It’s my story since I’ve been here; I haven’t won a playoff game,” Watt told reporters this week. “I’ve been saying it this whole season. You know how important it is to me. It starts with having a great day, day after day. This whole week. Today was a good day. This whole week was ‘Good week.’ But if we’ve learned anything about these last four weeks, it doesn’t matter how well you prepare, how good you feel about your preparation if you don’t execute on game day.”

Watt, a first-round pick in 2017, has carved out a career that stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best in franchise history, which says a lot for a franchise that has six Super Bowl wins and 32 members. of the Hall of Fame. Watt is the franchise leader in sacks and in 2021 became the seventh player in franchise history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Watt is surely proud of his career, one that will one day be enshrined in Canton, Ohio. But what he really wants is playoff success that ultimately culminates in a Super Bowl title. Watt also needs to win a playoff game; They are 0-4 in the postseason entering Saturday’s game in Baltimore.

“I always say there’s a big difference between guys who come back and are Super Bowl champions and guys who aren’t,” Watt said. “And that’s not a slight on guys who aren’t. I’m one of those guys right now, but there’s definitely an aura to a guy who’s won a Super Bowl. And there’s a togetherness, a tight-knit group of guys. that when they come back for those alumni weekends, they hang out and bond, and talk about their successes on and off the field and their Super Bowl run.

“And we want that. Everyone here wants that. Don’t confuse this lack of success with a lack of effort. Everyone is trying. We’re turning over every rock we can to be great. We want to be great.” Brilliant. We just have to do it together. And that doesn’t mean we haven’t done it, but we just have to do everything collectively and play complementary football when the moment matters most. And there’s definitely a sense of urgency because it’s the playoffs. National Football League. That’s why everyone plays the game.”

As Watt alluded to, the Steelers routinely welcome back former players during their in-season alumni weekends. The Steelers also have their annual induction into the Hall of Honor, an honor Watt will also receive when his playing career ends.

Pittsburgh has also had reunions for its Super Bowl championship teams. The franchise did it this year, bringing back members of the 1974 Steelers for the 50th anniversary celebration of their first Super Bowl victory.

While many of Pittsburgh’s iconic players won Super Bowls with the Steelers, many did not. That group includes Hall of Famers Rod Woodson (who won one with Baltimore later in his career), Kevin Greene, Dermontti Dawson, Ernie Stautner (the first Steelers to have his jersey retired), John Henry Johnson, three-time All-Pro linebacker Greg Lloyd, his perennial Pro Bowl teammate Maurkice Pouncey, and current Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward.

While it’s not a bad group of players to associate with, Watt hopes to join the list of Steelers greats who have won it all. He also wants one of his teams to someday have its own championship alumni weekend.

Despite their losing streak, Watt still believes his current team is still capable of doing it.

“I mean, we’ve had a tremendously good year up until these last two weeks,” he said. “We know we have the talent, we have the coaching staff, we have the scheme, we have everything that a good football team requires to make the playoffs. It’s just a matter of playing good football collectively, and we haven’t done that.” I’ve been doing that lately, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it back, and it’s a lot easier to get something back than to try to rebuild it or build it from scratch. , but I feel like I’ve said a lot this year, it’s about execution.”