Steelers' TJ Watt working to move past 'freak injury'

A pectoral injury derailed TJ Watt’s last season with the Pittsburgh Steelers after coming off a year where he won Defensive Player of the Year. Now, as he heads into the 2023 campaign this fall, he said he’s doing his best to reassure himself that it was nothing more than a freak accident.

Watt shared those thoughts with Mark Kaboly for an article with The Athletic. He said everyone that he spoke with said there was genuinely nothing that he could have done to prevent it. From here, Watt wants to accept it as a part of football and move on considering how difficult it was for him to miss the seven weeks that he did.

“I have talked to so many different people. And there was absolutely nothing I could have done in the offseason or working out to stop what happened to my pec. You have to continue to tell yourself that it was just a freak injury,” Watt said. “You think about it a lot. But then you realize it’s part of the game. Once you understand that, it becomes tolerable to deal with.”

“I was not 100 percent for a lot of the games and it was frustrating. I just wanted to play football, and I couldn’t the way I wanted to,” said Watt. “It was tough, it wasn’t easy. It sucked not being able to participate and not being able to put your hand in the pile.”

In 2021, Watt had officially become one of the most dominant defensive forces in football. He had, for the second straight season, led the NFL in both sacks and tackles for loss. His 22.5 sacks in that year tied the record for the most in league history.

Then, with high expectations in 2022, he suffered his pec injury in the first game of the season against Cincinnati. He still managed to play 15 games and record 39 tackles, 5.5 sacks, five pass deflections, two interceptions, and a forced fumble. Even so, he never felt the same after missing those seven games over an eight-week span.

At this point, Watt is just trying to find peace of mind in what happens. That’s the only path for him to return to his All-Pro form from the three seasons prior to his injury.