{"id":218312,"date":"2025-07-19T01:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T01:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/218312\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T01:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T01:59:11","slug":"yearly-offensive-linemen-summit-dedicates-full-breakdown-to-stopping-t-j-watt-says-former-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/218312\/","title":{"rendered":"Yearly Offensive Linemen Summit Dedicates ‘Full Breakdown’ To Stopping T.J. Watt, Says Former Player\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have had an eventful offseason, and they may have cleared their most important hurdle Thursday after reportedly agreeing to terms<\/a> with T.J. Watt on a three-year, $123 million contract extension. In Watt, Pittsburgh is retaining its premier pass rusher, one who will again the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.<\/p>\n

Everyone is aware of the impact Watt makes. Nobody is more aware of that than opposing offensive linemen, according to former NFL linebacker Sam Acho.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s feared by offensive linemen,\u201d Acho said Thursday on ESPN\u2019s NFL Live<\/a>. \u201cI was at the O-line Masterminds, they have a full breakdown on, okay, how do we try to stop or slow down T.J. Watt. So yes, it\u2019s well deserved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acho is referring to OL Masterminds<\/a>, an annual summit for offensive linemen. It\u2019s similar to the popular TE University run by George Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olson.<\/p>\n

Acho likes the Watt extension,<\/a> to say the least. It\u2019s hard not to. Watt\u2019s impact on the defense, the locker room and Steelers as a whole has been huge. The first massive extension he received back in 2021 made him the highest-paid edge rusher in NFL history. Now, he\u2019s accomplished that feat yet again.<\/p>\n

His prior experience served him well in these negotiations, as Watt did have something of a down year as a pass rusher in 2024. He finished with 11.5 sacks. three QB hurries, and 31 QB pressures. Those aren\u2019t bad numbers by any means. However, it was a drop from his 2023 season of 19 sacks, 12 QB hurries, and 50 QB pressures.<\/p>\n

That said, there\u2019s little reason to be pessimistic. Watt is on the other side of 30, but still has plenty gas left in the tank. Pittsburgh\u2019s likely going to be moving him around more, which should help him get in the backfield more after dealing with relentless chips last year. His strength against the run is undeniable as well. Even though his pass-rush numbers dropped, Watt still had 61 tackles, 19 of them for a loss, in 2024. Also, his 6.2-percent missed tackle rate was the lowest of his career.<\/p>\n

Watt is now the second of three AFC North edge rushers to get a new deal this offseason. Myles Garrett requested a trade from the Cleveland Browns in February, and shortly after, he reset the market with his $40 million annual average salary. However, Trey Hendrickson remains at odds<\/a> with the Cincinnati Bengals. Things don\u2019t seem to be progressing much on that front. It will be interesting to see how Watt\u2019s contract affects those negotiations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have had an eventful offseason, and they may have cleared their most important hurdle Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7875,7,6,520,57,2360,45550,426,5226,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-218312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-espn-nfl-live","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-samuel-acho","15":"tag-steelers","16":"tag-t-j-watt","17":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114877429681201742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218312","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=218312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}