“It’s difficult. Sitting here at the same time as last year, the same time has been in this scrum,” said Watt. “The same questions and I had the same answers. Of course I’m very disappointed with how things ended. It’s not just with the last game, it’s with the last month of football. It’s a combination of things and it starts with myself. I need to play better.
“There is not one thing that needs to be fixed here. There are many things. But it starts internally with myself. Need to play better in bigger moments. It will be a long offseason to have to deal with that.”
He is not wrong. Watt all but disappeared from the formula on the field last month, going without a sack in his last four games for the first time in his career. He also finished the season with no tackles and zero QB hits in his final two games.
There’s no easy fix for these Steelers, who took 10 wins from a team that didn’t have a definite answer when the quarterback entered in 2024. Their offense lacked juice over the last five games (all losses), but their defense was arguably worse .
The fashion in which the Steelers lost to the Ravens might be the scariest detail. Baltimore rushed for 299 yards in Saturday’s win, the most rushing yards by a team in a playoff game since the San Francisco 49ers in 2013. For a franchise that traditionally prides itself on defense, the performance was embarrassing.
“I don’t know. We need to win football games,” Watt said. “We need to find ways to stop the run and play effective defense and go from there. I don’t have all the answers as we sit here right now about what needs to change.”
Watts’ tone sounded eerily similar to that of another AFC North star, Cleveland’s Myles Garrett, who capped off an extremely miserable 2024 season by pressuring the Browns’ front office and demanding a concrete plan for how the club plans to improve before committing to them. Watt seems more inclined to stick with his team, but also knows some changes could be coming.
“I want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler,” Watt said. “You know. I don’t want to leave this place, especially in this (state).
“I want to be part of the solution. I’ve put so much into this here. I’ve seen so many guys. I want to help Cam Heyward get to where we need to go. I want to be part of a solution. I don’t want to leave the people here, and it’s just the coaches, it’s the people, it’s the community that wants to be part of a solution. Don’t leave here, go somewhere else.”
There’s no questioning Watts’ loyalty to the Steelers, but it’s fair to wonder if the franchise’s leadership is similarly dedicated. They’ve been grasping at straws to fix the quarterback position since the end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, and while Russell Wilson has done a good job helping them reach double-digit wins, it’s become painfully clear that he’s not a long-termer. answer anyway.
Maybe that’s where the Steelers start as they address their issues. But Wilson doesn’t play defense. After investing heavily on that side of the ball, the Steelers haven’t had a decent return. It will be up to general manager Omar Khan to make the right decisions to better position the Steelers into 2025.
Watt is going to be there for that. There is still no guarantee now that they will deliver.