T.J. Watt vows to play against Saints, says return to Steelers 'a long time coming'

The Pittsburgh Steelers still must make the transaction official before 4 p.m. Saturday.

That’s the deadline they face to activate outside linebacker T.J. Watt from injured reserve so he can dress Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.

It appears to be a formality.

Watt acknowledged Friday he will make his first appearance since Week 1 when the Steelers return from their bye and take on the Saints at Acrisure Stadium.

“I’m very excited,” Watt said. “This has been a long time coming.”

Watt doesn’t expect to be eased back into the Steelers’ gameplan. The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year will start at left outside linebacker and plans to play as many snaps as possible.

“No pitch count,” he said. “I don’t want to put any limitations on myself.”

Watt hasn’t played since late in the fourth quarter of the Steelers’ season-opening overtime win at Cincinnati when he suffered a pectoral injury. Then he underwent minor knee surgery, which delayed his return.

There is a history of Watt taking extended snaps after a long layoff. In 2021, when he didn’t take part in training camp practices or play in any preseason games while awaiting a new contract, he started the season opener at Buffalo and played 81% of the defensive snaps.

“He wasn’t injured then,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said when asked about Watt’s workload. “He was just working out on the side. He was working on some other things there. It wasn’t an injury. To me, that’s different because he was able to just do all the work on the side and run.

“Here, he was down for some weeks because he wasn’t able to run, he wasn’t able to lift.”

Without Watt, the Steelers lost six of their next seven games and occupy last place in the AFC North. He is hoping to rectify that downturn in the second half of the season.

“I think everybody in here is trying to find a spark and get in the win column,” Watt said. “Every week starts with a great week of practice, which I feel we’ve had. I’m excited to go out and see what we’re made of.”

When the Steelers designated Watt to return from injured reserve Oct. 26, it began a 21-day window for him to be activated. That window doesn’t close until next week, but Watt sees no reason to push back his return any further.

“I feel very good about the week I had,” Watt said. “I’m excited to play, excited to be back at Acrisure Stadium and to get the fans involved.”

In the season opener, Watt picked up where he left off from the 2021 season when he tied the NFL single-season sacks record with 22.5. He had one sack, three tackles for loss, an interception, two pass breakups and six tackles.

With Watt, the Steelers had seven sacks that day in Cincinnati. In the ensuing seven games, they have totaled eight. Having Watt back will ease the load on right outside linebacker Alex Highsmith, who had three of his team-high 6.5 sacks in the opener when he was playing second fiddle to Watt.

Austin believes Watt’s return also will benefit the defensive line.

“Anytime you have a great player and the other team has to provide resources to protect them from that player, it opens up some other things for somebody else,” Austin said. “That’s really what happens when you add T.J. to the mix. He’s going to open things up. Cam (Heyward) is not going to get the protection slide to him as much. Alex won’t get it slid to him as much. Now, all of a sudden, they’re going to be maybe in some more one-on-one situations that maybe they haven’t seen in the last few weeks.”

Watt said he will resist the temptation to do too much against the Saints.

“I’m trying to not be someone that I’m not,” he said. “That’s all we can ask for defensively. I’m not going out there trying to make every single play because then I’m putting the guy on the back end at risk, but I am going to try to help this team win games any way possible, whether it’s actually making plays or in a leadership role as well.”