Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin announced on Tuesday that outside linebacker T.J. Watt would be out for this week’s game against the New England Patriots. Watt suffered a partially torn pectoral in Sunday’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals. With Watt out, here are the players who must step up this week.
S Minkah Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick was the best defensive player in the NFL last week and seems to be back to his All-Pro form. I’m not sure what he can do to improve on what he did but at the minimum he has to come out on Sunday with a similar type of performance on defense.
LB Alex Highsmith
Alex Highsmith had three sacks last week which was a career high. How much of that was due to the extra attention Watt gets on the other side? It’s impossible to say but this week we will see if Highsmith can handle the workload of being the top pass rusher.
DT Cam Heyward
Another guy who played a huge game last week is Cam Heyward. And this week the undisputed leader of the Steelers defense is going to have to see if he has another gear this week. Heyward probably has the most pressure on him to step up to help take pressure off of Malik Reed who will start in place of Watt.
