T.J. Watt, brother of one of the most acclaimed pass rushers in the NFL, became the Steelers first-round draft pick late Thursday.
Watt is the brother of three-time NFL defensive player of the year J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans. T.J. Watt is 6-foot-4, 252 pounds with a 4.69 time in the 40. He played just one full season at Wisconsin after sustaining injuries to each knee the previous two seasons. He was a second-team All-American last season, racking up 11.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for the Badgers.
He becomes the third outside linebacker drafted by the Steelers in the first round in five years and the fourth linebacker overall. The others were Jarvis Jones (2013), who left this year to sign with Arizona as a free agent, and Bud Dupree (2015) on the outside and Ryan Shazier (2014) on the inside.
The Steelers depth chart right now has Dupree starting on the left outside and 39-year-old James Harrison on the right. Arthur Moats and Anthony Chickillo back them up.
There were three trades in the first round of the NFL draft and three quarterbacks drafted in the first 12 picks, which included eight offensive players. That pushed some better defensive players down, presumably aiding the Steelers.
Three cornerbacks were drafted between the 11th and 18th positions, but not one pure outside linebacker was drafted in the first 21. Miami broke the streak at No. 22 by drafting Charles Harris, a Missouri defensive end who could have been projected as a 3-4 outside linebacker.
The Atlanta Falcons traded up from No. 31 to No. 26 to draft Takkarist McKinley, an edge rusher the Steelers coveted. Then, Dallas drafted another pass rusher at No. 28, Taco Charlton.
