T.J. Watt Joins Julius Peppers as Only Players in NFL History With 100 Sacks and 10 Interceptions

T.J. Watt spent the offseason listening to people say he'd lost a step. He answered with a highlight reel.

The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker recorded two sacks, three tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and a pick-six in a 20-13 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1, according to Pe

Live and The Big Lead. The interception, early in the fourth quarter with Pittsburgh clinging to a 13-10 lead, came off a swing pass intended for Falcons running back Bijan Robinson from quarterback Cooper Rush. Watt jumped the route, stayed on his feet and returned it 35 yards for the score, per Ground News.

Watt is now just the second player since sacks became an official individual statistic in 1982 to reach both 100 career sacks and 10 career interceptions, according to ESPN Insights, cited by Newsweek and The Big Lead. The only other name on that list is Hall of Famer Julius Peppers.

Watt now has 117 career sacks, 10 interceptions, 358 tackles and 139 tackles for loss across 135 games in his 10 NFL seasons, all with Pittsburgh, according to Heavy.com. He's an eight-time Pro Bowler and four-time first-team All-Pro who won Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 after setting what was then the NFL's single-season sack record with 22.5. Cleveland's Myles Garrett broke that mark last season with 23, per Heavy.com.

Silencing the doubters

Watt's 2024 season was quieter and injury-marred, inviting plenty of outside chatter about his decline. His teammates noticed, and they didn't hold back defending him after the win.

"I saw how they talk about him online. It's crazy how a guy can be dominant for so long, and then one year he gets hurt and everybody tries to turn the page on him," linebacker Patrick Queen said, according to Pe

Live.

Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who has built his own career on takeaways, said he'd never seen anything quite like Watt's interception. "That's T.J. Watt. Like, what are we expecting at this point? I think people kinda forgot because he got hurt a little bit last year, maybe. I don't know. But that's T.J. Watt. That's who he is," Ramsey said, per Pe

Live.

Outside linebacker Nick Herbig, who credits Watt with teaching him how to time up snaps in film study, called him a "future Hall of Fame" player. Watt himself downplayed any special interception drills, telling Pe

Live his ball skills trace back to playing tight end in college. "I don't do JUGS. I just try in practice to tip passes as much as I can, just trying to be as ball aware as possible," he said.

A new era in Pittsburgh

The win carried extra weight for the organization. It was the first victory for new head coach Mike McCarthy, who was hired in the offseason after Mike Tomlin stepped down, according to The Big Lead. Ground News' aggregation of the game also flagged Aaron Rodgers' Steelers debut alongside McCarthy, a reunion of the pair from their Green Bay years, though the bulk of the day's coverage centered on Watt's defensive performance rather than the offense.

The game itself was closer than the final margin suggests. Falcons kicker Nick Folk missed multiple long field goal attempts before connecting from 43 yards to cut Pittsburgh's lead to 20-13 late in the fourth quarter, according to Ground News' Associated Press summary. Steelers kicker Chris Boswell also missed a 56-yard attempt with under seven minutes to play. Atlanta running back Bijan Robinson racked up 173 yards from scrimmage despite the loss, and a Falcons touchdown kept the score within a single score for most of the second half.

Coverage of the milestone itself was consistent across outlets. Newsweek, Heavy.com, WPXI (via SteelersNOW.com) and The Big Lead all cited the same ESPN Insights statistic crediting Watt as the second player to reach 100 sacks and 10 interceptions since 1982, with no outlet disputing the underlying number. The main variance was in framing: Pe

Live leaned into the locker-room narrative of Watt answering critics, while Newsweek and Heavy.com stuck closer to the box score and career statistics.

Watt and the Steelers, now 1-0, travel to face the New England Patriots on Sunday, Sept. 20, with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on CBS, according to The Big Lead and Heavy.com. Watt is still chasing something that has eluded him for a decade: his first career playoff win.