{"id":151709,"date":"2025-06-23T06:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T06:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/151709\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T06:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T06:59:11","slug":"too-much-boom-bust-analysts-leave-t-j-watt-out-of-top-10-defenders-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/151709\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Too Much Boom-Bust:’ Analysts Leave T.J. Watt Out Of Top-10 Defenders In 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

T.J. Watt is currently in the midst of a contract dispute<\/a> with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That\u2019s because he\u2019s one of the best players in the league, and he feels like he should be paid as such. Watt has been dominant in his eight seasons with the Steelers, accumulating 108 sacks. He\u2019s the Steelers\u2019 all-time sack leader, and he\u2019s trying to cash in with one more big contract. However, analyst Charles McDonald doesn\u2019t believe Watt is a top 10 defender in the league going into this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the best defensive players of this decade,\u201d McDonald said recently on the podcast Football 301.<\/a> \u201cIf I can say you\u2019re one of the best defensive Pittsburgh Steelers of all time, you are certified. I just thought that last year, for me at least, where you have these years where T.J. Watt is in DPOY contention, or he wins, or he comes in second to Myles Garrett, and Steelers fans are freaking out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you looked at some of the metrics, at even his best years, it\u2019s a little boom-bust as a pass rusher. Where he\u2019s not getting consistent pressure, I think, like a Myles Garrett or Micah Parsons\u2026 I thought last year was a little bit too much boom-bust for his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of McDonald\u2019s list consists of Jalen Carter, Kyle Hamilton, Nick Bosa, Chris Jones, Dexter Lawrence, Derek Stingley Jr., Fred Warner, Patrick Surtain II, Myles Garrett, and Micah Parsons. That\u2019s a solid list of some of the best defenders in the NFL. However, leaving Watt off feels wrong.<\/p>\n

Players like Garrett, Parsons, and Surtain are in the same realm as Watt. Two of those players are among the elite pass rushers in the NFL, and Surtain was the Defensive Player of the Year last year. Jones and Lawrence make sense, too. They\u2019re some of the best defensive linemen in the league. There\u2019s a good case to knock off one of those other names for Watt, though.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to criticize what Watt did last year. He ended the season quietly, finishing the year with 11.5 sacks, his lowest total in a healthy year since he was a rookie. However, he also had six forced fumbles, which led the league. While it might\u2019ve been a down year by his standards,<\/a> Watt was still incredible.<\/p>\n

Bosa is likely the player that could most easily be taken off of McDonald\u2019s list for Watt. They\u2019re both edge rushers, so it\u2019s easier to compare them. Bosa has been one of the NFL\u2019s elite pass rushers for years. Last season, he had nine sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception in 14 games. That\u2019s after he posted 10.5 sacks and two forced fumbles in 2023.<\/p>\n

While Bosa is an amazing player, it\u2019s tough to say that he\u2019s better than Watt. Those numbers aren\u2019t everything, but Watt has been a more productive player than Bosa. Even after a down year, there\u2019s a great case to make that Watt is better than Bosa.<\/p>\n

McDonald wasn\u2019t the only analyst in that video that didn\u2019t list Watt as a top 10 defender, either. Matt Harmon also didn\u2019t include Watt, and his reasoning was a little different.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason that I couldn\u2019t put T.J. Watt on the list is because I think Cam Heyward was better than him last year. And Heyward wasn\u2019t making my list. Maybe that\u2019s stupid logic, but that\u2019s a big part of why I didn\u2019t have Watt in my top 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harmon\u2019s top 10 was very similar to McDonald\u2019s, except he had Aidan Hutchison on his list instead of Lawrence. Considering Hutchison only appeared in five games last season due to injury, having him on the list, but not Watt, feels a little surprising. However, Hutchison was on pace to win Defensive Player of the Year before that. If he recaptures that form, then he could be in for a big year.<\/p>\n

However, it still might be a little soon to crown Hutchison. Watt has been one of the best players in the league for years, and he\u2019s still a top 10 defender. Without him, the Steelers are a much worse team. The last time that Watt got a new contract, he tied the single-season sack record. Perhaps he\u2019ll have a similarly explosive year this season<\/a> if he and the Steelers can get a deal done.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T.J. Watt is currently in the midst of a contract dispute with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That\u2019s because he\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[271,7,34666,5145,57,5226],"class_list":{"0":"post-151709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-charles-mcdonald","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-football-301","11":"tag-matt-harmon","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-t-j-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114731389286003935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}