Due to his early successes, it might be easy to lose sight of the fact that Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt, this year perhaps one of the frontrunners to win the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year Award, is in just his third season. And though he was not the youngest of rookies, he was among the most inexperienced.
He has come a long way in a relatively short period of times. In just the past two seasons, he has recorded 27 sacks and forced 13 fumbles. Nobody in team history has ever put up that many sacks in a two-season stretch, though Kevin Green came up a half-sack shy of the mark (and he did do it prior to ever signing with the Steelers).