Bill Belichick Lessons: Over 700 Words On T.J. Watt’s Greatness

Bill Belichick hasn’t been in a very talkative mood this season, and for good reason. But the Patriots head coach spent roughly five minutes Wednesday talking about Steelers superstar T.J. Watt.

With New England set to visit Pittsburgh on Thursday, Belichick was asked for insight into what makes Watt one of the NFL’s best defensive players. Watt, who tied Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record of 22.5 in 2021, ranks second in the NFL this season with 14.

Here’s what Belichick said:

“You know, he’s a very — he’s an instinctive player. He’s very quick off the ball. He has a good edge pass rush. He’s got really good lower body strength and balance. He does a very good job of closing to the quarterback and rarely gets knocked off balance. He might get hit, but he’s able to play through contact and stay on his track. He really does a good job of condensing the pocket even when he doesn’t hit the quarterback. He forces the quarterback into a smaller space that helps everybody else who’s rushing, (Alex) Highsmith or whoever the other edge player is and the guys inside. He’s a very good pursuit player.

“He makes a lot of plays from the backside or makes plays where you think he’s blocked. You think that, you know, he’s out of the play and he’s able to cross face the block, get back in the play and has enough speed. And desire, I would say, motor to get to some of those plays from the backside when you think that he should be a non-factor. And, you know, he ends up making a play for a six, seven-yard gain. Sometimes those are some of the biggest plays in the game because if he doesn’t make it, it might, you know, might go for 40.

“So, yeah, all those things. He’s got good ball awareness. He knocks down a lot of balls because of his awareness of sometimes the route that the back runs. So, he can sort of anticipate where the ball is going to be thrown. But also, he gets in close proximity to the quarterback so that if he gets his hand in the throwing lane, he’s able to either affect the throw or possibly get his hand on the ball. He’s got that really good reach move with his left hand. He’s got a lot of strip sacks on that through the years where he’s engaged with the blocker and still is able to knock the ball out of the quarterback’s hand with that left-arm reach. So, I’d say that’s kind of his patented move. And he’s really, really good at it.”

But wait, there’s more. Belichick then was asked whether instinct is the top separator for great players like Watt.

Here’s his full answer:

“Like we’ve talked about before, I think that’s great rating a player is a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle, and there’s a lot of pieces that go in there. You know, I could have really good instincts, but I’m sure I’d be a terrible player at that position. So, what good is it, right? A player like Lawrence Taylor, who was, you know, a rare athlete combined with elite instincts, well, then you have a Hall of Fame player. Maybe the greatest player that ever played on defense. So, it’s a combination of things. They’re all important. They all fit together differently for different players and their skill sets.

“But I would say that Watt’s — the instincts are important, but his get off, his, I would say, contact balance and ability to leverage and turn the corner, even on much bigger and very athletic tackles, is a very highly skilled talent that he has. So, yeah, instincts are important. Speed is important. Strength and balance is important. You know, coordination of the hand and footwork that he, you know, the hand slap, the hand swipe, the dip, the way he, you know, does everything right at the point of contact with the tackle at the junction point is very, very good. And he’s very hard to block. He knows what he’s doing and he knows how to give the tackle a very small surface to hit.

“And he’s not the biggest guy, but he has enough balance and power to work through contact and not get rerouted and thrown off of his rush lane or his rush path, I should say. It’s hard to get him off his rush path. It’s really hard. He does a really good job of that. And again, that helps everybody else. There’s a lot of plays where he himself doesn’t get the statistic for it, but his play leads to disruption by somebody else, either inside or it could be Highsmith on the other side or it could be a blitzing linebacker or whatever. He really restricts the width of the pocket and doesn’t go scramble plays in doing that. It’s really good.”

By the way, the final tally was 723 words. And credit to New England’s public relations staff for transcribing all of it.

Belichick will get a first-hand look at Watt on Thursday when the Patriots face the Steelers in what will be a matchup between two great defenses and two bad offenses.

With Bailey Zappe in line to start for the Patriots, don’t be surprised if Watt adds a few more sacks to his season total.