Steelers snap counts: Can less be more for Alex Highsmith, T.J. Watt?

PITTSBURGH — This story originally appeared on SteelersNOW.com.

Sometimes, less is more, and that might be the case for the Pittsburgh Steelers top edge rushing duo of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.

Watt and Highsmith played 45 and 47 snaps, respectively, last Saturday against the Cincinnati Bengals, while backups Markus Golden and Nick Herbig suited up 20 and 17 times. The 37 snaps from the Steelers backup edge rushers was the second-most in a game this season, and the most since the blowout loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1.

But less playing time didn’t stop the top duo from being productive. Watt had a sack and Highsmith had a sack and an interception. In fact, it seems that on the whole, less might be more for those two.

In the five games where Watt has played more than 90% of the Steelers’ snaps, he has five sacks. In the five games he has played less than 80% of the team’s snaps, he has seven sacks.

Click here to read the full story from SteelersNOW.com.

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