TJ Watt was told he wasn’t allowed to bounce fumbles from Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown in practice

Pittsburgh Steelers OLB TJ Watt has become the master of punching out to force a fumble, learning the “Peanut Punch” made famous by Charles Tillman from Tim Tibesar, his linebackers coach at Wisconsin. But Watt didn’t have the opportunity to perfect or work on plays in practice early in his tenure with the Steelers. He told ESPN’s Hannah Storm on Sunday NFL Countdown that the team told him he couldn’t take out the team’s star players, particularly Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown

“When I got to the NFL, it was fun. The first couple of years of training, I did the rookie minicamp and they were like, This is great, but as Le’Veon (Bell) and AB (Antonio Brown) and stuff like that guys, you can’t beat these guys. So I stopped doing it a little bit and as I got older I started doing it again in practice and we put the emphasis on that,” Watt said.

Although the Steelers are one of the teams that favor tackling in practice, they didn’t want Watt to take out their best players. While the risk of injury is likely increased when Watt tries to power through in practice rather than just packing in and tackling, this was probably done more to avoid friction and tension between two of the team’s star players and a rookie trying to establish himself. to prevent.

It probably would have upset Bell or Brown, two established stars when Watt was drafted, if he had come in and made a habit of forcing fumbles on them in practice. But as Watt grew older and more established, he was able to do so without fear of backlash from his teammates, and it turned into a coaching position for the Steelers.

It’s a bit silly not to let Watt work on something he’s really good at and that could make a difference in live practice, but it’s important to avoid conflict and keep team chemistry high to win. As we saw with Bell, and especially with Brown toward the end of his Steelers tenure and his post-Steelers career, managing their egos was important, and Mike Tomlin did a great job of that.

Eventually, Watt became a star player and was given free rein to do whatever he wanted in practice. The increased emphasis on punch-outs and forced fumbles benefited Watt and the Steelers team as a whole, as he already had 32 forced fumbles in his career, including five this season. In the future, no one will tell Watt that he can’t knock anyone down, no matter who they are.