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Flavell's Five Thoughts: T.J. Watt is THE Defensive Player of the Year

T.J. Watt's dominant performance and four other thoughts from the Pittsburgh Steelers win.

We’re going to try and veer away from the Ben Roethlisberger talk here. He deserves all the praise and ovations that he received this week since announcing it would potentially be his final home game. But there will be plenty of time to discuss his exit and his career in the coming weeks.

The Pittsburgh Steelers won Roethlisberger’s final home game in a fitting fashion over the Cleveland Browns 26-14. It was an awesome moment, but it also helped keep the Steelers’ slim playoff hopes alive—incredible stuff.

However, beyond Big Ben, there is a lot to discuss. Let’s get down to it, shall we?

Un-ironically, the O-Line Was Good With J.C. Hassenauer

The Kendrick Green experiment at center looks like it’s seen its final days. He struggled time and time again in protection as an undersized center and was having trouble making a clean snap.

In week 17, Hassenauer replaced Green. Najee Harris not coincidentally ran for 188 yards and a touchdown behind him.

I’m not placing the entire season’s struggles on Green. He hasn’t been good, but the pieces around him haven’t either. Hassenauer does seem to present a better option than Green as the middle piece of the offensive line.

Green is a natural guard and should potentially be used as such. The Steelers absolutely need to try and squeeze everything they can out of him. They used a third-round draft selection on him, so they see him as a valuable piece of the offensive line. It just shouldn’t be as the center.

Abolish the Ray-Ray McCloud-Driven Offense

This bullet point pains me to even write. Whether it’s week one or week 17, Ray-Ray McCloud should not be the focal point of the receiving game. Not on screens. Not on deep fades. Not on any single offense should McCloud be afforded 10 targets with a fully healthy wide receiver room. That’s on the coaching staff.

Diontae Johnson, who we’ll address again a little later, rightfully paced the offense with 15 targets. That’s how it should be.

To be fair, Roethlisberger did throw the ball 46 times for an astounding 123 yards so someone had to be favored. How do you not get James Washington more involved? I’m sure he can’t wait to take the next plane out of Pittsburgh this offseason. And rightfully so.

Use Chase Claypool more despite his immaturity. Use Johnson 30 times a game if you have to. Give Najee more looks. And feed Pat Friermuth all the red zone targets. Stop throwing deep fade routes to the smallest receiver in the National Football League.

Corliss Waitman Has Earned a Chance to Compete Next Year

The circumstances are awful. Harvin losing his dad is the only reason Waitman is on the roster and it’s a shame. However, Waitman has been very good in Harvin’s stead.

Waitman had five punts and averaged 48.8 yards per punt with one pin inside the 20 and zero touchbacks. With the anemic offense Pittsburgh had this season, they couldn’t afford to have a punter who couldn’t flip the field, at least on occasion. Harvin hadn’t done a great job of that to this point.

Mike Tomlin used a draft pick on Harvin. They’ve obviously got some faith in him. That doesn’t mean Waitman, or another punter, can’t be brought in as competition in training camp.

Harvin was always going to win the competition with Jordan Berry because of the seventh-round selection used to draft him. His first season didn’t go all that well, and he should be given some competition because of it.

TJ Watt is the Defensive Player of the Year

I can’t stress enough how this can’t be a debate.

Look at the landscape for the award. Micah Parsons will win the Defensive Rookie of the Year in a landslide. There isn’t much of a close second. He’ll probably even garner some votes off of TJ Watt. You can’t possibly say that a guy with the statistics that Watt does can’t win the award. He arguably was snubbed two years in a row prior to this, granted to Stephon Gilmore and Aaron Donald.

He has one game to record 1.5 sacks to break the all-time record in a single season. Watt has sat out two games and missed parts of others with injuries. He nearly missed the Ravens game due to COVID and promptly went out and had 3.5 sacks.

Watt can lay claim to 21.5 sacks, six pass defenses, four forced fumbles, and 36 quarterback hits. He’s been the best player on the defensive side of the ball all season long.

Give the man the award he’s been going after for three years and move on. He might win it for the next half-decade anyway.

Boswell Gets Back on the Right Track

Chris Boswell went 4/4 on field goal attempts in this one after missing at least one in his last three games. As automatic as Boswell has been, he did miss a few kicks over the past few games and at least a sense of being human crept into his mind.

Each of his field goals went right down the middle showing signs of Boswell doing his best Justin Tucker impression.

He’s now 33-of-37 (89.2%) on field goals and 26-of-28 (92.9%) on extra points. Only three other kickers have made more kicks this season than Boswell. He’s as good a kicker as there is in the league, and he’s bailed out the Steelers on multiple occasions over the years.

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