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Steelers' T.J. Watt Clearly Defines Future in Pittsburgh Amid Playoff Frustrations

The linebacker has been vocal about how much a postseason win would mean to him.

Brigid Kennedy

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt on Jan. 13, 2025.
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt on Jan. 13, 2025. / Aaron Becker / Twitter / Screenshot
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Star Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt has not hid his frustration regarding his team's postseason struggles—the Steelers haven't won a playoff game since 2016, which means neither has Watt in his eight seasons with the franchise—but he's still not looking to go chase rings somewhere else.

"I want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. You guys know that," Watt said Monday, two days after the team's wild-card elimination at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. "I don't want to leave this place. I want to be part of the solution. I've put so much into it here. ... I want to help Cam Heyward get to where we need to get. ... I love the people here and that goes beyond just the coaches. It's the fanbase, it's the people, the community, and we owe it to them to get it right."

But there is "a lot" to be fixed, the former Defensive Player of the Year added separately.

"Obviously I'm very frustrated with how things ended," he went on. "And that's not just with the last game, that's with the last month of football. It's a collection of things and it starts with myself. I need to play better, we need to play better. There's not one thing that needs to be fixed here, there's a lot of things. But it starts internally with myself. ... It'll be a long off-season to have to sit with that."

Watt, 30, is under contract in the Steel City through the end of the 2025 season, and the team will likely want to keep him on its roster so long as he's in the league. Luckily for the Pittsburgh front office and for Pittsburgh fans, the Pro Bowler seems to be aligned with that.

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Brigid Kennedy
BRIGID KENNEDY

Brigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film (from the Newhouse School of Public Communications) and marketing managment (from the Whitman School of Management). Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.

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