T.J. Watt is still one of the NFL’s 100 best players, according to the people who’d know best: his fellow players. He’s just not sitting nearly as high as he’s used to.
The Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker landed at No. 41 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026, the league’s annual, player-voted countdown that’s been rolling out in stages on X since June 22. It’s Watt’s eighth consecutive appearance on the list. It’s also, according to Yahoo Sports, his lowest ranking since he first cracked the Top 100 in 2019 — a steep drop from No. 11 a year ago.
The NFL’s official X account confirmed the placement in a video post featuring Watt, tagging the Steelers and NFL Films. The post did not include a link that could be independently verified for this article, so it’s referenced here without a direct citation.
No. 41 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2026…@steelers LB T.J. Watt! @NFLFilms pic.twitter.com/zz6HUukHI7
— NFL (@NFL) July 31, 2026
Why the Ranking Dropped
The slide isn’t a mystery. Watt battled through an injury-shortened 2025 season, one that included a scary medical scare in December: a partially collapsed lung suffered during a dry needling treatment at the Steelers’ facility. His brother, former NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt, announced on social media that T.J. underwent surgery to stabilize and repair the lung, and Watt missed three games before returning for the regular-season finale against Baltimore.
The numbers tell the rest of the story. Per Bleacher Report, Watt finished 2025 with seven sacks, 19 quarterback hits and 10 tackles for loss. Those seven sacks were his fewest in a season with at least 14 games played since his 2017 rookie year. He still made the Pro Bowl for an eighth straight season, but it was just the second time since 2019 that he missed out on All-Pro honors and didn’t appear on a single Defensive Player of the Year ballot.
| Season | Top 100 Rank | Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | No. 27 | 19 |
| 2024 | No. 8 | 11.5 |
| 2025 | No. 11 | 7 |
| 2026 | No. 41 | 7 (2025 total) |
Not the Only Skeptical List
Watt’s peers weren’t alone in marking him down. CBS Sports analyst Pete Prisco went even further in his own personal rankings, slotting Watt at No. 88 overall — a 77-spot fall from where Prisco had him a year earlier. According to Steelers Depot, that ranking drew pushback from analyst Emory Hunt, who argued Watt remains a more disruptive player than his numbers suggest and pointed to his eight pass breakups and three forced fumbles as evidence he still swings games.
Watt turns 32 in October. He’s entering the second year of the three-year, $123 million extension he signed in July 2025, and the Steelers will lean heavily on new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to manage his workload and keep him healthy for a full 17-game slate.
Steelers’ Second Representative
Watt is one of two Steelers to make this year’s Top 100 so far, joining All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey at No. 82. That’s a thinner Pittsburgh presence than a year ago, when Watt, Cam Heyward and Patrick Queen all cracked the list.
The countdown continues daily on X and NFL+ through Labor Day weekend, building toward the reveal of the No. 1 player on September 4. Whether Watt can climb back into the top tier next year will depend on staying on the field — something that wasn’t a given in 2025.
