Two historic rivals will meet Thursday night when the Steelers come to Cleveland to face the Browns. The game will also feature a personal rivalry between pass rushers TJ Watt of the Steelers and Myles Garrett of the Browns.
Watt, the league’s 2021 Defensive Player of the Year, was clearly unhappy when he didn’t win the award again last year. Instead, the award went to Garrett, who was asked Tuesday if Watt had spoken to him since joining him as a DPOY winner.
“No, he didn’t tell me anything,” Garrett said, via the Tribune-Review. “You’ll have to apologize when you see it.”
Watt did not attend last year’s NFL Honors Show and posted a cryptic message on social media seconds after Garrett won the award. Watt was ignored despite leading the league with 19 sacks in addition to his four forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. Garrett had 14 sacks, four forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
“I’ve never complained about the trophy being in my house and vice versa,” Garrett said. “He shouldn’t have any doubts about me going. We’re just going to play the game. I don’t play against TJ, he doesn’t play against me. We’ll plan to go out and do what we’re supposed to do is win the game and dominate in defense. It’s up for grabs this year. “We will see the best win.”
Watt was asked this week about Garrett and his response to not winning DPOY last year.
“I respect everyone in this league,” said Watt, who earlier this year became the second-fastest player in NFL history to reach 100 career sacks. “Obviously, he’s a guy who’s been the best pass rusher in this league for a long time. But I’m not directly competing against him. It’s our team against his team, and I just want the Pittsburgh Steelers to come out with a win.”
Despite his record-breaking career, it seems Watt is somewhat underrated. Last year, it seemed like Watt’s gaudy numbers were downplayed by those who valued advanced metrics like win rates and sack pressure, tackles for loss, forced fumbles and fumble recoveries.
Earlier this year, JJ Watt, Watt’s older brother and three-time DPOY winner, was asked to evaluate some of the new analytics that appear to be replacing traditional ways of evaluating pass rushers.
“It’s a very fascinating time” Watt told CBS Sports. “I think there are a lot of companies that can make a lot of money trying to come up with things that look extremely clever and trying to give people information that they think provides value that may or may not be.
“I think there are a lot of analyzes that are extremely beneficial and useful… The problems I have are when we rate players based on the analysis that one person came up with on an algorithm that someone came up with and then we are putting it a number or a grade. It starts to be a slippery slope when you judge it based on those things.”
The elder Watt said he prefers more traditional statistics.
“As far as winning percentages and things like that versus traditional numbers, I mean, are we going to start giving wins based on who should have won the highest percentage of plays in that game? Are we going to start give the Super Bowl? To the team that has the highest winning percentage all year?” said. “A sack is a sack, a win that didn’t result in a sack is not a sack. You could be leading the game 99% of the game and lose that game on the last play. You lost, you’re 0.” -1 in the column. In my opinion, I just believe in sacks, TFLs, and touchdowns. “Those are the things we can quantify and justify.”
When it comes to TJ Watt, the veteran pass rusher is enjoying another DPOY caliber season. Despite facing more double teams, Watt has still recorded 7.5 sacks and a league-high four forced fumbles for the Steelers, who are 8-2 entering Thursday night’s game against the Browns of Garrett, who are one loss away from sealing their 22nd losing season since returning. to the NFL in 1999.
