Defensive Player of Year T.J. Watt shares which Bengals player could be underrated in Super Bowl
Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt said he won’t focus too heavily on the line of scrimmage.
The newly crowned NFL Defensive Player of the Year will watch the Super Bowl more from a fan perspective than through a film junkie lens.
Nonetheless, he understands the challenge that the Cincinnati Bengals, hailing from Watt’s AFC North division, pose.
“[Quarterback] Joe Burrow does so many great things to be able to help out that offense and make that offense go,” Watt told Paste BN Sports over Zoom on Friday, speaking in partnership with Six Star Pro Nutrition. “They have so many weapons on the outside that he’s able to spread the ball out and get the ball quickly. If they don’t decide to spread the ball out and get it out quickly, he’s elusive in the pocket, feels pressure very well, which helps out that offensive front.
“And then I think Joe Mixon is a very underrated running back. I’ve seen him for the past five years. He’s a guy that has very good contact balance, can catch the ball in the backfield.”
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Mixon rushed for a career-best 1,205 yards and 13 touchdowns in his fifth pro season. He also caught 42 passes for 314 yards and three more scores in the regular season. But postseason defenses have limited him to one touchdown in three games, his yards per attempt down from 4.1 to 3.7. The Rams, with perennial All-Pro Aaron Donald, could again stifle him.
The Rams, hosting the Super Bowl at their home SoFi Stadium, posted the sixth-stingiest run defense this year, allowing just 103.2 rushing yards per game. Their passing defense, in contrast, ranked 22nd with 241.7 yards per contest allowed.
Burrow could ride playoff success to continue that air punishment, with his 70.4% completion rate the best among all quarterbacks this season. Or will he take off, as he’s done five times for a first down in three playoff games this year?
“It’s so difficult to get quarterbacks down to the ground these days because they have escapability,” Watt said. “You can win your one-on-one pass rush clean and still can’t get to the quarterback because he’s able to find escape lanes, get to the first down. The more weapons an offense has on the outside, you have to double team those guys and play man coverage. But when those guys have their backs turned, it makes it very easy for the quarterback to escape the pocket if you’re not disciplined in the rush lanes.”
Watt’s advice?
“You can’t rush the passer scared,” he said. “In the AFC North we have three quarterbacks who can run that we go up against every single year twice a year, so a lot of guys like to rush scared and try to just bull rush every single time. Then the quarterback has all day in the pocket. I think there’s a fine balance between communicating with the D-line so you’re on the same page and also rushing still free so that you’re not taking up space and letting the quarterback have all day back in there.”
More from Watt
On his social media cleanse: “I’ve been working with Six Star Pro Nutrition for quite a bit now and it was one of those things they came up to me with this social media cleanse idea. I didn’t realize how much social media I was using until I looked at how much screen time I was using, was kind of blown away. … It’s important to me that I wasn’t just sitting there scrolling through my phone and watching life pass by. I wanted to bring on as many teammates as I could, and Six Star was gracious enough to bring them on with me.
“I’ve been happier.”
On NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Micah Parsons, who finished in second place in Defensive Player of the Year voting: “I briefly met him [at NFL Honors] and just shook hands with him and said congrats on a great season. I think as a rookie, to have the year he had is so special. Just seems like a really humble guy, can do it all on the defensive side of the ball.
“I think the most important thing for him is the versatility. He can rush the passer and drop back in coverage and make a lot of tackles. Anybody who’s that impactful is obviously very important to their team. … So I think he’s going to have a great career down there in Dallas.”
On whether he thought the Cowboys might draft him at 28th in 2017, rather than the Steelers at 30th: “I got the call while Dallas was on the clock so everybody thought it was Dallas. But it actually was Coach (Mike) Tomlin. So there was probably a sliver of time when everyone in the room thought it was Dallas, but I knew it was Pittsburgh.”
On brother and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt presenting T.J.’s award: "As J.J. went up there, I knew it was a good chance. I didn’t want to believe any of it until my name was called (because) I’d been at that award show when I felt like I had a chance of being selected and wasn’t. I had that letdown and so I didn’t let myself fully embrace winning the award until my name was actually called. It was very surreal to have him up there, to have a warm embrace from someone I admired in my brother, someone I grew up with and someone whom I admired holding that trophy when I’ve seen him up there holding that three trophies."
On if J.J. had presented the award to someone else: “He would have been exiled from a couple Thanksgivings for sure.”
Follow Paste BN Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein.