Dream come true in black and gold
But none of that was as significant as what didn’t show up in the box score, some words of encouragement for a future NFL defensive player of the year candidate.
“That was pretty cool to see that Derek would do that for his brother,” their father said, “and that those two could do that together.”
Yes, John and Connie Watt have plenty of stories from watching their three sons play football over the years, but that footnote of a play is one of their favorites. They’ll get a chance to make many more memories now as their two youngest, Derek and T.J., reunite as teammates in the NFL with the Steelers.
Only this time, the roles are reversed. T.J., 25, is the established All-Pro passrusher in Pittsburgh. Derek, 27, is the free-agent signing eager to help the offense and special teams as a hardnosed fullback.
The Watts always have seen the Steelers as a familyoriented organization, given the way leadership has been passed down from generation to generation, how the Rooneys immediately reached out to them when T.J. was drafted and even having another set of brothers on the team in Terrell and Trey Edmunds (who played against their youngest brother Tremaine last season for an NFL first in the modern era).
But conversations about two Watts together at this level never went far beyond their imaginations.
“Personally, I never let myself get too hopeful for it,” Connie admitted. “Just because I knew it would be hard if I hoped for it so badly and then it didn’t happen.”
It’s happening
Derek Watt hasn’t played a down yet for the Steelers, but he already has contributed to the franchise in a way.
One of the Watt family’s favorite pastimes is sitting around a fire, enjoying each other’s company and occasionally talking ball. Brad Arnett, who has trained Derek, T.J. and oldest brother J.J. since 2004, remembers one such evening in J.J.’s yard four years ago, midway through T.J.’s college career at Wisconsin when he was a backup linebacker and both of his brothers were either in the NFL or headed there. On that night, the flames were burning just as hot inside the youngest Watt.
“He was like, ‘I’m sick of waiting my turn,’” Arnett recalled. “And I said, ‘There’s only one way to change that. You have to make everybody’s choice so easy.’”
That fall, the baby of the family completed his transformation from oft-injured tight end to All-American edge-rusher. And in short order, he’d be a first-round pick of the Steelers at outside linebacker, fueled along the way by following in the footsteps — sometimes, shadow — of not one but two stud football players with the same last name.
“The thing that always stuck out to me was just how driven he was to become great, and wanted to do whatever he could,” said Tim Tibesar, Wisconsin’s outside linebackers coach from 2015-17, which spanned the final seasons for both T.J. and Derek.
“We’d play a game on Saturday afternoon, and that night, I might get a text or call, everybody else is out celebrating the game, and he’s at home, studying the tape, asking me, ‘Hey, coach, how could I have done this better? How can I get to the quarterback when they put two offensive linemen on me?’ That’s where I’d text him back, ‘Hey T.J., take a breather and enjoy the win.’”
The competitive spirit of the Watt trio can be seen just about anywhere. It might even be their defining characteristic. On Twitter, it could be who’s faster from wave to shore while hanging out on the beach. Or cooking. Or who can make the better s’more around the fire pit at J.J.’s place.
For Arnett, owner and director of NX Level Sports Performance, when he trains all the Watts at once, he has to build an extra halfhour into any workout “because something’s going to become a competition, and then we can finish stuff up.”
Tibesar thinks back to his first year coaching at Wisconsin, when T.J. was transitioning to linebacker and Derek was the team’s starting fullback. Paul Chryst’s offense had plenty of power run plays where it was Derek’s job to kick out the end man on the line of scrimmage, and sometimes, that edge defender had “Watt” on the back of his jersey, too.
“There were definitely some pretty epic collisions,” Tibesar said.
If there is a training camp, Steelers fans will get to see and hear those pads pop in black and gold when No. 44 goes head-to-head with No. 90 in a drill. Only now it’s the middle child with a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
Odd one out
John and Connie Watt don’t necessarily think their second son has embraced his role as much as he’s accepted it. Derek John Watt wasn’t even 2 years old when his little brother was born. But he knew then that he wanted to be different, wanted to be the odd boy out among Justin James and Trent Jordan. He was sick of hearing J.J., D.J. and T.J., so he told his mom he wanted to go by just Derek.
These days, “just Derek” is the only one who plays offense. The only one who wasn’t a first-round pick. The only one who hasn’t been a Pro Bowler.
“I’m sure he’s sometimes very envious and things like that, but at the end of the day, he just knows what he can do on the field will show itself,” Connie said. “Obviously, he’s still in the league and doing very well, so I think it just constantly gives him more motivation to keep proving himself.”
Derek has had to prove just about everything since being a sixth-round pick of the Chargers in 2016, but his story isn’t one of some little engine that could.
His senior year at Pewaukee High School, he was named Wisconsin’s state player of the year, beating out big-time running back Melvin Gordon and 2017 NFL tackles leader Joe Schobert, both of whom would garner All-American status playing with him at Wisconsin. Derek was a 1,000-yard running back, but at the time, local sports writers figured he would play defense for the Badgers.
But J.J. was 6-5, 220 pounds going into college, and his story from Central Michigan to Wisconsin walk-on to future Hall of Famer has been well-chronicled. T.J. was 6-4, 215, and everyone from reporters to recruiters to his parents couldn’t help but notice he had J.J.’s body type. So while Derek had the most accomplished prep career out of any of them, at 6-2, 215, his ceiling as a prospect was never quite as high.
“Derek knows what he can do,” John said. “And while we’re super grateful to the Chargers for giving him the opportunity — they drafted him and kept him around for four years because of what they knew he could do — the fit was just never that he was going to get a whole lot of time out there.
“It’s going to be fun to watch in Pittsburgh because I think he is going to get a little bit more of an opportunity to shine and do the things he’s capable of on the field, as far as the offense goes in Pittsburgh.”
That’s probably clear enough from looking at Derek’s contract, a threeyear, $9.75 million deal that makes him the league’s second-highest paid fullback. And while he tied for the NFL lead with 16 tackles on special teams last year, his bank account is looking a lot nicer than most guys who make their livelihood by covering kicks and punts.
Derek and T.J. are similar enough that they agreed to live together while overlapping at Wisconsin, a decision their mom believes restrengthened their bond at a time when they were making new friends and hanging out in different places. But ever the planner, Derek was the first brother to get married (J.J., 31, followed suit in February), and now is the first to have a family of his own, raising his 14-month-old son, Logan, with his wife, Gabriella.
“Personality-wise, I would say Derek is probably the organized one of the three of them,” John explained. “Whenever he sees a situation, it’s going to be bangbang-bang, he’ll have it all set up with how he wants to do it, when he wants to do it. Whereas, J.J. and T.J. are more fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants-type people. There’s nothing wrong with either, but it’s fun to see how different they all can be even though they’re all three brothers.”
As luck would have it
Speaking of Logan Watt, he and his parents are living with his grandparents until they can move to Pittsburgh. He has a figurine for his dad’s new team and a hat he wears when he goes on rides in his stroller. Connie has a flag in their basement with the logos of the Chargers, Steelers and Texans, and is using it to teach him who to root for from now on.
“Where’s daddy’s logo?” she’ll ask, and he runs to it.
“T.J. definitely will have the upper hand now, and if he somehow botches this and doesn’t come out on top as the favorite uncle, that is 100% on him,” Derek said with a laugh a few days after signing with the Steelers. “He will for sure have more access and more opportunity to be around Logan and spoil him as much as he can.”
There’s that competition again. It’ll have to wait, though. And as eager as everyone is to see Derek and T.J. wearing the same uniform, they’re cherishing their time together while COVID-19 has the world stopped.
The brothers are working out at J.J.’s Wisconsin estate 3½ miles from the home John and Connie moved into last year. T.J. has his own apartment, which is helpful because having them all under one roof just wouldn’t work anymore, “not to mention the kitchen never closes,” Connie joked.
They use the weight room in J.J.’s pole barn for strength training, then go outside and run on the grass for conditioning. Sometimes, their wives (and girlfriend, in T.J.’s case) are there to hang out, but mostly, they’ve had no problem social distancing while staying in shape.
“When the guys are working out, there’s no way I’m messing with that mojo,” Connie said. “They’re locked in, and I can just see the look on their face when we walk in, like, ‘Don’t interrupt.’ I’m impressed. I love to watch what they do because it’s unbelievable when I look at all the weight on there. Even after a while I have to walk out because I’m like, ‘I can’t see you lift that much.’ It’s crazy.”
Soon enough, she and John will watch them leave Wisconsin for their professional cities, feeling a different kind of excitement for the two who got hired by the same company. They used to think having one son get a scholarship to play college football was like winning the lottery, then they realized they hit the jackpot.
Now that two of them are teammates, do they dare dream of a next chapter in this improbable story? Derek switched his college commitment from Northwestern to Wisconsin, but J.J. entered the draft after his redshirt junior year. On that day in 2010 when T.J. made his varsity debut, J.J. could only proudly call from afar and give him a pep talk rather than suit up with them.
“The thought of having more than one on a team, boy, that just seemed like I could never ask or wish for that, because we’ve already been blessed so much,” Connie said, then chuckled. “And if we could ever have three? Oh, my gosh.”
Steelers fans are thinking the same, peppering J.J.’s social media accounts with trade scenarios and farfetched ideas to bring him to town, as well.
“I have seen Steeler Nation courting J.J. and trying to bring the trilogy of us together; that would be something special,” Derek said. “I know I’m not the big, sexy signing that J.J. would probably be, but I’m going to do the best I can to not let Steeler Nation down . ... That would be something incredibly special for our family if we could all three somehow get together on the field in the same uniform.”
That might never happen, but in 2020, they’ll all share something almost as special. The Texans are scheduled to visit Heinz Field Sept. 27, J.J.’s first game against T.J. and his second matchup with Derek (he’s 1-0; the other two have split two meetings).
“He’s extremely happy for us,” Derek said. “He’s jealous of the fact that we get to play together, but he’s super supportive” — until the Texans play the Steelers, “then he’ll want us to suck.”
John and Connie can hardly wait. Can the coaches find a way to get all three in there on the same play? Unlikely, but maybe the Steelers can draw up a 2-point conversion play for Derek to find T.J. in the end zone while J.J. just misses a sack.
There’s a photo in the Watt house that reminds them to never say never. It’s a shot from behind of Derek and T.J. standing side-by-side, leaving the field after their final game together for Wisconsin, armin-arm, Watt-and-Watt, something they figured they’d never see again.
“Obviously, it’s kind of surreal right now, having all the boys home,” John said. “It doesn’t even seem like there’s anything to do with football, other than they’re working out and stuff. I think once the reality hits and we actually see them drive off and head for Pittsburgh, it’s going to be a pretty neat experience.”