T.J. Watt is having a season for the ages.
The Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker recorded his 17th sack of the season when he took down Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill in the third quarter, making him the franchise single-season sacks leader since the stat became official in 1982.
He technically had a half-sack in the first half to break the record, but he was not credited with it until later in the game.
Watt bested the previous mark held by James Harrison in 2008 and is now just five sacks shy of Michael Strahan’s single-season record of 22.5 sacks, although has just three weeks remaining to get there.
It also marked 66.5 career sacks for the 27-year-old, giving him the third-most sacks in a player’s first five seasons of his career, passing Derrick Thomas.
If Watt wants a crack at Strahan’s record, he will need to record two sacks in each of his next three games. He has five games of at least two sacks and two games of at least three sacks this season.
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Of course, Watt will also get an extra week at the record, so it may come with an asterisk.
Then again, Strahan’s record has a bit of an asterisk itself as Brett Favre memorably gave himself up to let the Giants legend break the record.
Watt also helped the Steelers to a 19-13 win over Tennessee to move to 7-6-1 on the season in what is an extremely tight AFC North race where each team still has a shot at the division.
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