{"id":651451,"date":"2026-01-03T19:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/651451\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T19:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:43:11","slug":"t-j-watt-shares-honest-feelings-about-return-to-steelers-in-week-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/651451\/","title":{"rendered":"T.J. Watt shares honest feelings about return to Steelers in Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fans of the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/3-more-potential-2026-free-130151473.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pittsburgh Steelers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, rejoice! T.J. Watt is set to make his long-awaited return against the <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/ravens-receive-positive-injury-ahead-120304153.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Baltimore Ravens;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Baltimore Ravens<\/a> in Week 18, and arguably no one is more thrilled than the four-time First-Team All-Pro.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, Watt excitedly discussed his return to action this Sunday against Baltimore, while also revealing that he doesn&#8217;t believe he could\u2019ve suited up any sooner.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel pretty good,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3myL8lyDyCk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Watt told reporters.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Watt told reporters.<\/a> \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t know if I could have said that a week ago, but I feel really good. I feel really confident about the week of practice and excited to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Watt later added that he didn&#8217;t have any limitations during practice, as well as telling reporters that \u201cnothing\u2019s been discussed\u201d in relation to a snap count in Week 18.<\/p>\n<p>With Watt coming off lung surgery and a four-game absence, it\u2019s reasonable to expect the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/pittsburgh-steelers\/356\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Steelers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Steelers<\/a> to ease him slowly back into the fold. But based on his comments, the former Defensive Player of the Year is looking to hit the ground running when the Ravens come to Pittsburgh this Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>For up-to-date\u00a0Steelers\u00a0coverage, including Pittsburgh&#8217;s Week 18 matchup against the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/baltimore-ravens\/366\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Baltimore Ravens;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Baltimore Ravens<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday Night Football, follow us on X\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TheSteelersWire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@TheSteelersWire;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@TheSteelersWire<\/a>\u00a0and give our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SteelersWire\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook page;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Facebook page<\/a>\u00a0a like.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelerswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/steelers\/2026\/01\/03\/steelers-ravens-tj-watt-week-18-return-injury\/88001857007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Steelers&#039; T.J. Watt gets candid about Week 18 return vs. Ravens;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Steelers&#8217; T.J. Watt gets candid about Week 18 return vs. Ravens<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, rejoice! T.J. Watt is set to make his long-awaited return against the Baltimore&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[117,7,6,520,57,2360,426,19837],"class_list":{"0":"post-651451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-watt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115832881484397731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651451","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=651451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}