LATROBE, Pa. -- Standing in front of the backdrop in an emptying locker room after yet another one-and-done playoff exit for the Pittsburgh Steelers, T.J. Watt admitted he needed to be open to moving around more, that primarily rushing from the left side no longer had the same impact it once did for the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
"I prefer the left, but at this point in my career I want to be an impact player," Watt said in January, days following the 28-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC wild-card game. "I don't want to be schemed out of games. I want to be able to deliver the football in good field positions or take the football away. It wasn't a good enough year for myself."
Seven months and a new contract with $108 million guaranteed later, Watt's words are coming to fruition on the field in Latrobe where he's splitting training camp practices perfecting his pass rush from the left -- and the right. Turning 31 on Oct. 11 and entering his ninth year in the league, Watt's best path to maximize his effectiveness is through varying his pass rush location, using his versatility and adding wrinkles to the defensive scheme rather than simply relying on pure strength and power -- though he still has plenty of that, too.
"That's something that this time of year is perfect for, to move around to get comfortable," Watt said. "It's not about winning every single rep and having to be on the left side and having to get everything mastered on the left side. It's about trying new things and moving around.
"... We just have so much depth. ...I'm sure we'll have some cool packages and some new stuff for you guys to see."
Since being selected 30th overall by the Steelers in the 2017 NFL draft, Watt has played 4,887 snaps at left outside linebacker compared to 653 on the right. And of those limited snaps on the right, 86% came in his rookie season when Bud Dupree was the primary left outside linebacker. That season, five of Watt's seven sacks came from the right side. The two flipped sides a year later and the payoff was significant. Watt nearly doubled his sack total to 13 -- 10 of them coming from the left -- and five of his six forced fumbles came from the left, too.
Since his rookie campaign, Watt hasn't played more than 20 snaps at right outside linebacker in any season.
But even if Watt's alignment became somewhat predictable, stopping him has been nearly impossible. In 2021, he matched Michael Strahan's sack record with 22.5 sacks -- all coming from the left side -- and he earned AP Defensive Player of the Year honors.
Two years later, he led the league with 19 sacks and finished second in a tight DPOY race to Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett.
Last season, the Steelers continued to primarily play Watt on the left side, but they added in a few wrinkles that saw immediate results. He lined up on the right side 12 times, including 10 specifically at right outside linebacker. Nearly half of those snaps came against the New York Giants in the Week 8 Monday Night Football matchup, and it helped lead to Watt's first two-sack game of 2024.
Watt notched his first sack from the left on the Giants' first drive of the third quarter. The pair then flipped sides on the next play. Watt recorded a pass rush win, helping to create a sack for Alex Highsmith. Prior to that play, the Steelers hadn't recorded a sack on a play with Watt lined up on the right side since 2021 when Chris Wormley sacked Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield as Watt lined up at right inside linebacker.
Watt's unexpected movement against the Giants then helped lead to a fourth-quarter strip-sack of Daniel Jones in the red zone.
"We had him on the right, and then we moved him to the left," Dunbar said of Watt. "The quarterback didn't see him shift and left the protection on the left side of the offense. And he got the sack to clean the game up. That's the kind of stuff moving good players around can do for you."
But in the Steelers' final five games of last season, including the playoff loss, Watt played 260 of 261 snaps from the left side of the defense. In that stretch, he had just two sacks and four quarterback hits as he went against right tackles Jack Conklin (Cleveland), Lane Johnson (Philadelphia), Roger Rosengarten (Baltimore), Jawaan Taylor (Kansas City) and Cody Ford and Amarius Mims (Cincinnati).
"Sometimes things happen that way, just how the season unfolds," Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. "At some point maybe Alex [Highsmith] was out, so [Watt] wanted to stick to his favorite side and all that stuff. We like when he moves around because it's harder for the teams to just say, 'Hey, TJ's going to be over here. Let's block it, set the protection.'
"We'll move him around a little bit, but we're not going to move him around to our detriment. We know he's had some really great seasons coming on that our defensive left, offensive right side, and he could still do that. We're trying to open up, open it up for him and for others to so we can get more sacks."
To prepare, Watt worked on pass rush moves from both sides throughout the summer as his agents negotiated his record-setting contract extension. Now at camp, Watt is intentional about how he works on each side. Rather than alternating throughout a single practice, Watt will spend the entire day on one side. Eventually, he said, he expects to flip sides throughout practice to more closely resemble game-like scenarios.
"We're picking days to work on it," Watt said. "I'd rather work on one side for that day just to get more reps at it as opposed to going over there for a rep here or there."
Like it did for Highsmith against the Giants, the Steelers expect that moving Watt around will benefit the rest of their pass rush, too.
"We're all trying to be as versatile as we can be," rookie pass rusher Jack Sawyer said. "Playing both sides of the ball so teams can't game plan for the best player in the league definitely will help him, and obviously helps us too. It gives us a chance to wrestle on a different side and feel the game out from both sides, so I think it's beneficial to everybody."
Just what exactly will that versatility look like during regular-season games? Fellow pass rusher Nick Herbig smiled at the question.
"I can't give you the sauce, man," he said.
ESPN Research contributed to this story.