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PFF changes their tune on Pittsburgh Steelers pass rusher T.J. Watt following unveiling of league-wide positional rankings

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Rob Gregson | Last updated Jul 21, 2025 10:34 AM ET

Pittsburgh Steelers star T.J. Watt was in the news a lot late last week and into the weekend.

A good portion of that was due to his record deal, which he signed a week before the first practice was scheduled in Pittsburgh.

It just so happened to coincide with PFF releasing their top 50 NFL players rankings, and Watt being fairly high on the list..

T.J. Watt ranks 10th in annual PFF top 50

Watt’s rare consistency and game-changing versatility make him one of the NFL’s elite defenders. In 2024, he earned a 92.3 PFF grade — second only to Myles Garrett among players with 300-plus snaps — and was the league’s only defensive lineman to post 90.0-plus grades in both pass rushing and run defense. Since 2019, Watt ranks as the second-most valuable edge defender, per PFF WAR. As the heartbeat of Pittsburgh’s defense, he shows no signs of slowing down heading into 2025.

Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema, PFF

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To be fair, PFF has never been the all-the-way hot take, treating Watt as some bad player. But a lot of the evidence they used to propel Myles Garrett over Watt in 2024 was clearly used in NFL media circles when it came to the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Instead of analyzing sacks, tackles, forced fumbles and other metrics of the likes, PFF has been an innovator in advanced analytics, with things like pressure to sack ratio, the basis on which Garrett was voted over Watt in 2023.

But the fact that Watt is the only pass rusher to post 90.0 or higher grades in pass rushing and rush defense, and he did so in what was clearly a down year that was marred by injury, it shows the dominance and respect that Watt has accumulated during his tenure.

It's why he is now the highest-paid non-quarterback to ever play in the National Football League.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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