Watt signed to a new five-year contract

Watt had 19 tackles, including 13 solo stops, five and a half sacks, 17 quarterback hits, and three pass defenses in November. He had two games with multiple sacks during the five-game stretch, including the Bengals and Ravens (Week 12) games when he had two each.

In 2019, Watt was named AP First-Team All-Pro as an edge rusher, and second team as a linebacker, after finishing the year with 14.5 sacks. He finished with eight forced fumbles, two interceptions, four fumble recoveries and 36 quarterback hits. He had multiple sack games four times, including two sacks against both the Rams and Dolphins, and a sack and a half against the Bengals and Colts. In addition to being voted team MVP for the first time in his career, he also was selected to the Pro Bowl. Watt became the only NFL player since 2008 to have at least 14 sacks, 14 tackles for loss, 36 quarterback hits, eight forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries in a season. Watt is the first player in Steelers history with 14 plus sacks in multiple seasons, doing so in 2019 and 2020.

In 2018, Watt moved to the left outside linebacker spot and it paid dividends for him. Watt led the Steelers' defense and tied for second among all NFL linebackers with 13 sacks. He was the only NFL player to finish the 2018 regular season with at least 65 total tackles (68), 10 sacks (13) and five defensive forced fumbles (6). He also played in his first Pro Bowl after being named a replacement.

Watt's career got off to a strong start when he recorded 52 tackles, 39 of them solo stops and finished third on the team with seven sacks, second-most by a rookie in Steelers history. He finished the year with 12 quarterback pressures, eight passes defensed, an interception, forced fumble and blocked field goal. Watt was the only linebacker in the NFL to finish the regular season with 50 tackles (52), five sacks (seven), five passes defensed (eight) and one interception (one).