Ryan Clark on T.J Watt: Watt has moved into the discussion of best player in the world.

Wait a second...


You mean to tell me the most clutch Defensive Player in Football is the best one in the game?!?!


SHOCKING!!!!!

 

Clark should know better.

 

Is Clark aware NFL football only has teams in the United States

 

Will go down as best Steeler defender of all time because of how he changes games over and over. Has nothing to do with stats. His presence is 2nd to none.

 

The CFL players are tough as nails too.

 

2nd now in the NFL

No

All time Steelers

He’s down the list

 

Watt has been the best defensive player on the planet for many years now. Ryan Clark is behind the 8 ball on this topic.

 

The talking heads on tv seem to think Myles Garrett or Micah Parsons is better .

 

Too many even if they are both great!

 

I still wished he had scored a TD. 2 TDs in 6 games would not have been bad.

 

They are stupid. LoL

 

I think he was mad about that himself. He had that I'm going in look on his face where they better get out of the way.

 

A lot of that is just hype depending on what game you are watching

That’s their job

 

I don't rely on emotion or age bias when I make this statement. I love watching Watt play. He is a bona fide game changer and offense wrecker. He is an all-time great Steeler. But he is not the greatest Steeler of all time. That honor belongs to Charles Edward "Mean Joe" Greene. He was the cornerstone of a defense that dominated a decade. He helped orchestrate the turnaround of a downtrodden franchise and willed them into four-time world champions. He and Jack Lambert were the emotional leaders of those teams.

career accomplishments include:

• 4× Super Bowl champion (IX, X, XIII, XIV)
• 2× NFL Defensive Player of the Year (1972, 1974)
• NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year (1969)
• NFL Man of the Year (1979)
• 5× First-team All-Pro (1972–1974, 1977, 1979)
• 3× Second-team All-Pro (1971, 1975, 1976)
• 10× Pro Bowl (1969–1976, 1978, 1979)
• NFL 1970s All-Decade Team
• NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team
• NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
• Pittsburgh Steelers All-Time Team
• Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Honor
• Pittsburgh Steelers No. 75 retired
• Pittsburgh Pro Football Hall of Fame

Greene's number 75 and Ernie Stautner's #70 are the only two Steeler numbers that are "officially" retired.

Don't take my word for it. Well respected publications like, Sports Illustrated, Street & Smith's, Sporting News and even NFL.com all name Joe Greene as the greatest Steeler of all time.

 

I like and respect Ryan Clark as a fine ex-Steeler and his current job an analyst. But he's wrong.

 

I've been fortunate enough to be a Steelers fan my entire life. I never got to see Ernie Stautner play, but I have been following this team for 54 years and have seen every other great player that has ever put on a Steelers uniform since 1969. There have been so many great players that we have all been blessed to watch play this game. Joe Greene was an amazing player. So many of those players from the 70's and all the way through to current times have shown us true greatness.

I love Joe Greene as a player too, but I just don't understand fans that are so afraid of a player not associated with the 1970's Steelers possibly being the best Steelers player of all time.

Making a proclamation that Ryan Clark is wrong, and TJ Watt is not the greatest player in the world or the greatest Steelers player, and listing Joe Greene as the greatest Steelers is your opinion and your right, but I don't know how anyone can definitively say that in the middle of Watt's career with all he has accomplished already. If Watt continues to play at his current level for 4-5 more years, he will probably be considered not only for being the Steelers best player ever, but he will possibly be in the conversation of being the greatest defender ever.

He is doing things that only a player like Lawrence Taylor has done. You know, the guy most people consider to be the greatest defender in the history of football. Since 1982, only Lawrence Taylor and TJ Watt have had more than 70 sacks and 7 interceptions in their first 7 seasons. Lawrence Taylor had 83 sacks and 8 interceptions in his first seven seasons. TJ Watt has 85.5 sacks and 7 interceptions with 11 more games to go in his seventh season.

Watt has already tied the record for the most sacks in a single season, and we know that he actually beat the record because they took away a sack from him and Brett Favre intentionally fell to the ground to make sure Michael Strahan got the record that season. Watt had the best sack season of all time.

Watt is constantly being double and triple teamed. Offenses build their entire game plans around trying to take him out of games. All the attention he gets creates one-on-one opportunities for everyone else along the defensive front. Plus the tight ends and backs that stay in to block and chip him are taken out of pass patterns to block him. Plus that lightens the load on the coverage and allows better coverage schemes. Plus his consistent pressure means the secondary doesn't have to cover as long.

The team is also 1-10 without TJ Watt in the lineup. 1-10. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/steelers-record-without-t.j.-watt

The Steelers were 8-1 without Joe Greene. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask?q=steelers+record+without+joe+greene+all-time

Nobody knows what the future holds, but to kid yourself into believing that TJ Watt isn't doing something unprecedented and beyond special is just running from what is right in front of you. If....and I repeat....IF....he continues to do what he is doing for several more years, this is going to be revisited by everyone. That includes Sports Illustrated, Street & Smiths, The Sporting News, NFL.com, and every other media outlet you can think of.

He may even have his number retired eventually.

Joe Greene may always be considered the most important Steelers player because of what he helped start here. That doesn't necessarily mean he is the best Steelers player ever or always will be.

 

This is a tough argument. We are comparing two very different era's in the NFL. Tons of rule changes. It was a big help to be great in the 70's when you had an amazing and I mean AMAZING cast around you. I'm old so I side with Mean Joe but I'm convinced without Watt this team loses a lot of those games we won.

 

I'm not even saying he is better. All I am saying is that I can't just decide that only the players I grew up watching were the greatest Steelers.

I was a kid, but Terry Bradshaw was my quarterback. I thought Mean Joe was amazing. Jack Ham and Mel Blount were heroes to me. I grew up watching that great group of talent on a football field, and it's easy to just say they were all the best players I would ever see play the game in a Steelers uniform. The more I learned about football, the more I appreciated how great all of those players were, but it also helped me understand what it meant when that much talent was on the field at the same time.

I now have a greater appreciation for all Steelers players that performed at an incredibly high level without as much talent around them. Players that truly make everyone on the field a better player. They operate beyond the scheme and elevate the players around them. It takes special talent to do that, and I am not going to hold it against a Steelers player short because his team didn't win 4 Super Bowls.

 

no he is not down the list.

he is just early in his career.

at yr 5 vs other great steelers , he is RIGHT THERE in the #1 discussion.

just does not have 10 years of doing it....

 

we are 0-6 w/o Watt

Book it, Dano!

See last season's start.....

 

In fact since that Watt is with us,the steelers are 63-28-2 with him and 1-10 without him...Massive difference!

 

He is my favorite current Steeler. That being said it shows how much this defense is built around putting pressure on the QB. If I am an opposing team my offensive game plan starts and ends with finding out how to block to TJ Watt. Houston did an excellent job of that with sliding protection that way and getting rid of the ball quickly. Thats why I love JPJ in their because his press man coverage compliments Watt so well. It takes away the quick pass and messes up the timing. We just need another JPJ on the other side. Highsmith is good as well but when the other teams are double and triple teaming Watt like the Rams did in this last game ... Highsmith should be feasting. If Heyward comes back healthy with Benton next to him it will be interesting to see how teams block us.

 

Every opposing linebacker we face is Better than Watt ie:BOSA ---GARRET---everyone. Tomlin will say it.Talking heads will say it .but will I heck no------WATT is the best blitzing---sacking ----covering ---causing fumbles---interceptions-----blocking passes--which I think he learned from <Cam Heyward>now TREVOR LAWRENCE---will be the best QB in history till next week