T.J. Watt, UW Alumni Shine for Steelers in 2025

It’s no secret that the matchup everyone will be watching when the Green Bay Packers face the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 26 will be former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, for the first time, squaring off against the team with which he won four MVPs.

But the Steelers roster features plenty of additional Wisconsin ties, including three prominent University of Wisconsin alumni. At the top of the list is Pewaukee native T.J. Watt, who has put forth a Hall of Fame résumé during his tenure with the Steelers.

Here’s how those players have fared:

T.J. Watt is still productive; has he maybe lost a step?

Watt, 31, signed a three-year extension worth $123 million before the season, making him the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL, albeit briefly.

Watt has been named to the past seven Pro Bowl teams and has finished top-five in the Defensive Player of the Year voting a whopping five times, with two runner-up finishes and a win in 2021. Through six games this year, he has four sacks, with five tackles for loss, one forced fumble and one interception. He plays 80% of the defensive snaps, a reduction from the 86% he played last year.

Former Eagles star running back LeSean McCoy had some cold words for Watt’s play against the Bengals last week, when Cincinnati upset Pittsburgh 33-31. Watt and fellow edge rusher Alex Highsmith recorded just five pressures on 70 pass-rush snaps.

“In the fourth quarter, I made a call to the police,” McCoy said. “Has anybody found T.J. Watt? Did he play today? You got a 40-year-old quarterback in the backfield that can’t move a lick, and I see no pressure. T.J. Watt, you made a big deal about getting paid this offseason, and you ain’t played at all today.”

If Watt has lost a step, that’s obviously good news for the Packers, who have surrendered four sacks over three games against Watt in his career. The Packers, of course, famously missed a chance to draft Watt when they traded their first-round draft pick in 2017.

Has Nick Herbig stealthily become the team’s best pass rusher?

It’d be wild to suggest another former UW player, Nick Herbig, has passed Watt as Pittsburgh’s best pass rusher, but Steelers fans have certainly taken notice of the Hawaii native.

Herbig, 23, racked up two sacks, four quarterback hits, a defended pass and six pressures in Week 6 against Cleveland, and now he’s up to 4.5 sacks and six TFLs on the year, a career-best in the latter category and one shy of last year’s 5.5 sacks. After playing just half of the defensive snaps in 2024, he’s up to 69% of those snaps this year.

Tommy Jaggi of Still Curtain was among the voices who questioned the Steelers’ unwillingness to use Herbig more in the loss to the Bengals, pointing to struggles from Watt and Highsmith. Coach Mike Tomlin cited his team’s inability to control the run as a reason for using Herbig less.

What about Keeanu Benton?

Keeanu Benton has started all six games this year on the defensive line and already has a career-best 2.5 sacks this season, with five quarterback hits. The UW and Janesville Craig alumnus plays on 65% of the defensive snaps, up from 59% last year, and his special-teams workload is down to under 10%.

Ex-Packer Dean Lowry is on the Steelers but on injured reserve

• Former Packers defnesive lineman Dean Lowry is on the Steelers’ injured reserve after sustaining an ACL injury in August.
• Isaiahh Loudermilk, another former Badger on the Steelers defensive line, hasn’t played since Week 2 against the Seahawks after suffering a high-ankle sprain. He was placed on injured reserve and won’t be available for the game against the Packers.
• Green Bay Southwest alumnus Max Scharping, a guard who played in the first two games of the season, also suffered a torn ACL and is out for the year.