Unpopular Opinion: You can’t easily compare T.J. Watt and Myles Garrett

When the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the dreaded long offseason, there are plenty of ideas to debate. As part of the triumphant trio on the Steelers Preview podcast, I’ve been known to often give a “Dave answer“ to various things as I often like to argue both sides of an issue. With this in mind, a new weekly segment has been born… Unpopular opinion.

There are plenty of arguments both for and against the Pittsburgh Steelers that might not go along with the majority of fans. Oftentimes I believe in these arguments, while other times I simply like to pose a counter argument for ones that are taking it too much to the extreme. For this reason, I’m going to offer some points about the Pittsburgh Steelers that go against the general fan narrative, or at least how I have heard things.

Next up is the argument about who is better between two of the NFL’s best defenders…

You can’t easily compare T.J. Watt and Myles Garrett

I was thinking about this topic this week when I stumbled across a video shared by Andrew Filipponi of 93.7 The Fan. He apparently was on The Fan radio station in Cleveland and they were arguing about T.J. Watt versus Myles Garrett.

To give a little synopsis, Filipponi brought up the correct point that T.J. Watt leads Myles Garrett in every significant measurable statistic. Even in looking at the side-by-side comparison at Pro Football Feference, there’s only one category in which Watt does not lead Garrett: head-to-head postseason record. Of course, the ridiculous Browns fans tried to say that’s the only thing that matters and what makes Garrett better. Really, they sounded like fools.

But there was a question in there where they thought they “got“ Filipponi and I wish he would’ve had the correct answer to the question. There was a pause when they first asked it and then they jumped all over him in what they thought was a “gotcha” moment. But really, the question itself has a flaw that is exposed by the easy answer.

The question was as follows: “Looking at the other 30 NFL team teams, would they rather have T.J. Watt or Myles Garrett?

They thought they had the best of Filipponi because he didn’t instantly answer Watt. And although I thought Filipponi wasn’t really smart enough to come up with the answer, he was obviously much smarter than these two clowns he was talking to. But the answer is quite simple…

Teams who run a 3–4 defense would prefer to have T.J. Watt while teams that run a 4–3 defense would prefer Myles Garrett.

The bottom line is, it’s not easy to make this kind of comparison of who you would choose simply because these two players don’t play the same position. Yes, they are both considered “edge rushers“ as their primary goal is to rush the quarterback. Looking at those numbers, it’s easy to conclude that T.J. Watt is the better player. The numbers are simply better. But even though that’s their primary job, it still doesn’t mean that they play the exact same position.

The NFL has had a problem for quite some time in trying to reconcile how to classify players and hand out post-season awards when some teams play 4–3 and others play 3–4 it all came to ahead in 2015 when Khalil Mack (I incorrectly said Von Miller on the podcast) was selected First-Team All-Pro as both an outside linebacker and a defensive end. The bottom line is, voters didn’t know which place to put him. In 2016, they tried to reconcile this as best as possible and came up with the category “edge rusher.” While I think this probably does the best job of comparing players, it is still not perfect.

A 4–3 defensive end is not the same thing as a 3–4 outside linebacker. They are close, but a 4–3 defensive end is also somewhat close to a 3–4 defensive end. And when I think of a 3–4 defensive end, especially one of high-quality, the first player that comes to mind for me (using recent Pittsburgh Steelers) is Stephon Tuitt. If I were to try to describe what a 4–3 defensive end is such as Myles Garrett, I would say he’s kind of a mix of T.J. Watt and Stephon Tuitt. I might be way off base in your opinion, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind for me.

There are ways you can compare these two players. It’s not that it’s completely off-base. But you’ve got to look at numbers. T.J. Watt owns those numbers. So if you want to make the assumption of their value to another team, it has everything to do with what defense they run.

If Myles Garrett was traded to the Steelers today, I’m not sure exactly where he plays. Is he an outside linebacker? Is he more suited to be a 3–4 defensive end? I would probably go DE specifically with the Steelers, but I’m not sure that’s the right call.

On the flip-side, if T.J. Watt landed on the Cleveland Browns, what position would he play? Would he be an off-ball outside linebacker? Would he have to play defensive end in a 4–3 where they often wind up more inside? That’s a tough call as well.

I remember early in T.J. Watt’s career where his big brother, J.J. Watt, refused to answer the question about who was better because the two did not play the same position. It’s a valid point. I think there’s a little bit more separation between T.J. and J.J. as some even looked as the older Watt as an interior defensive lineman. But I don’t think that’s an accurate assessment either.

Sometimes things aren’t as easy to compare simply because they need a much deeper thought process to go into it. If so, I wouldn’t blame someone with a 4–3 defense thinking that Myles Garrett would be more useful to them. But if it was an NFL team playing a 3–4 defense and they chose Garrett over Watt, I don’t know what they would be thinking.

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