Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and will get a gold jacket five years after he decides to hang up his cleats for good. That said, Watt is coming off a down year for his standards.

The former Defensive Player of the Year had just 11.5 sacks in 2024, which is his lowest total for a full season since his rookie year in 2017 when he had seven sacks. And while a double-digit sack total is far from a bad season, per se, it’s a down year for a guy who had 22.2 and 19 in his last two full seasons, respectively. ESPN’s Mike Clay released his yearly projections for all 32 teams and each player on every team, and he has Watt projected to have just 10 sacks. He also has Alex Highsmith picking up nine sacks, but Nick Herbig only totaling three.

In addition, Clay only has the Steelers totaling 35 sacks as a team, which would have been the fifth-fewest in the NFL in 2024, and would also be five less than what they recorded last season.

While these are just projections, Clay does a great job with this every year and has a track record of getting things very close to spot on. Last year, he predicted Russell Wilson would throw 15 touchdowns – he threw 16. Clay also predicted the Steelers would have 38 sacks in 2024, and they had 40.

Should this be Watt’s actual production, let’s all hope Pittsburgh doesn’t give him a $40 million per year extension. Instead, let’s hope for a big bounce-back year for No. 90.