Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt doesn’t want be known for just his long list of individual accomplishments. He wants to start winning playoff games, which is something that he’s never done.
Watt is 0-3 in playoff games. He was out with a knee injury in this past season’s wild-card loss to the Buffalo Bills. The Steelers have lost five straight playoff games, dating back to the 2016 AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots. They’ve allowed 202 points in those five losses, an average of 40.1 points per game.
“It [stinks]. There’s no nice way of putting it… I’m trying to do whatever is possible to win,” Watt said at minicamp on Tuesday.
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette thinks the seven-year playoff drought is something that the entire organization is fed up with.
“I’ll tell you the different type of vibe I’m getting down there this summer,” Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan. “I was in on an interview with T.J. Watt yesterday, and he’s coming up on some milestones in his career, 100 sacks, he’s pretty close to it. And he was asked about the importance of that, and he said, ‘The number that’s important to me is zero playoff wins.’ And that reverberates throughout the locker room.”
This isn’t the first time this offseason that Watt has expressed displeasure in never winning a playoff game.
“Obviously, didn’t go the way we wanted in the end,” Watt said about the 2023 season in an interview on SiriusXM NFL Radio in March at the 101 Awards, via Steelers Depot. “This is my seventh year, this past season, and to not win a playoff game is embarrassing and not how we do things in Pittsburgh.”
Watt doesn’t want his legacy to be known as “the all-time Steelers great that never won in the playoffs.”
“I don’t want my legacy to say that ‘T.J. Watt (accomplished) all these individual things but what happened in the big moments?’” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to get better (at), and I’m willing to do everything I possibly can and hopefully everybody in the locker room is on the same page.”
Cam Heyward and Chris Boswell are the only players on the roster who’ve experienced a playoff win with the Steelers.
