Mike McCarthy said he does not want T.J. Watt routinely living above 60 defensive snaps per game in 2026, setting a clear workload target for the Steelers’ top pass rusher. The message is simple: the team wants Watt fresher when games tighten late, and it has the depth to make that plan real.
That is why Watt is being searched now. McCarthy said the Steelers’ edge group should let the coaching staff manage the rotation with the fourth quarter in mind, and his own words left little room for guessing. “I’m not interested in seeing TJ, you know, average 60-plus… plays a game,” he said. “That’s, that’s not the best for him. And that’s not the best for us as a defense.”
The numbers behind that idea matter. A 17-game season leaves little margin for a front-line defender to absorb heavy volume every week, and Pittsburgh has spent years treating every snap from its best pass rusher as something too valuable to waste. This time, the Steelers believe the roster can absorb more of the load behind Watt, which changes the math on when and how often he needs to come off the field.
Alex Highsmith remains an established starter on the opposite side. Nick Herbig has grown into a legitimate impact rusher, and Pittsburgh backed that belief with a major extension this offseason. Jack Sawyer gives the Steelers another young edge player who can take rotational work. Put together, that is the kind of group that makes a lighter plan for Watt possible without asking one player to carry every third-down rep alone.
But the move still carries a catch. Taking Watt off the field can look, on the snap sheet, like handing the offense a small break. McCarthy is arguing the opposite: that those pauses are part of how Pittsburgh protects its edge rush, keeps it explosive and gets Watt back at his best when games reach the fourth quarter. That is the tradeoff the Steelers are trying to shrink, because a breath now may be worth more pressure later.
Watt has already acknowledged how important a stronger edge rotation is, and this offseason’s extension for Herbig only sharpened the picture of where the Steelers think they are headed. The goal is not just fewer hard miles in September. It is to reach December and January with enough in reserve that the pass rush still looks like a problem when everyone else is slowing down.
What comes next is the real test: how Pittsburgh divides the snaps between Watt, Highsmith, Herbig and Sawyer when the season starts. McCarthy has drawn the line at 60-plus as a routine workload for Watt, but the Steelers still have to decide how close to that line they want to live once the games begin.
