[5] In July 2015 Watt was asked by head coach Paul Chryst to switch to a defensive position as a redshirt sophomore.

[3] Badgers' outside linebackers coach Tim Tibesar recalled Watt's position change, saying, "At that time, even though he was in his third fall at Wisconsin, it was kind of like having a freshman come in.

[12] He attended Wisconsin's pro day, along with Dare Ogunbowale, Vince Biegel, Corey Clement, Sojourn Shelton, and six other teammates.

[25] Watt saw action in the NFL for the first time in the team's first preseason game against the New York Giants, where he made two sacks in the 20–12 victory.

[29] On October 22, 2017, Watt had six combined tackles and sacked Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton, his fourth of the season, during the Steelers' 29–14 victory.

[30] On December 10, 2017, Watt recorded his first career forced fumble when he sacked Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco with 12 seconds remaining in the game.

Watt finished his rookie season with 54 combined tackles (40 solo), seven pass deflections, seven sacks, one forced fumble, and an interception in 15 games.

On January 14, 2018, Watt started his first NFL playoff game and recorded two combined tackles and deflected a pass in a narrow 45–42 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the American Football Conference (AFC) Divisional Round.

[35] Watt started in the season-opener at the Browns and recorded a season-high ten combined tackles (seven solo), three sacks, and blocked a potential game-winning field goal, the first of his career, during overtime in a 21–21 tie.

[37] On October 7, 2018, Watt recorded eight combined tackles, tied his season-high of three sacks, and forced a fumble in the Steelers’ 41–17 win against the Atlanta Falcons.

[40] He started in all 16 games in 2018 and recorded 68 combined tackles (50 solo), 13 sacks, six forced fumbles, and three pass deflections.

[43] In Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks, Watt recorded six tackles and made his first sack of the season on Russell Wilson in the 28–26 loss.

In Week 14 against the Arizona Cardinals, Watt recorded his second interception of the season in the end zone off a pass thrown by Kyler Murray during the 23–17 win.

[47] By the end of his third season, Watt had established himself as one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL, tallying an AFC-high 14.5 sacks, along with tying Chandler Jones for the league lead with eight forced fumbles.

[54] In Week 1 against the Giants, Watt recorded his lone interception of the season off a pass thrown by Daniel Jones during the 26–16 win.

[72] The following week, Watt recorded four tackles, one sack and one forced fumble against the Las Vegas Raiders before leaving the game with a groin injury.

[78] This gave Watt a total of 17.5 sacks on the season, a franchise record, surpassing the mark previously set by James Harrison in 2008.

[81] Despite missing two games and parts of three others, Watt ended the regular season leading the league in sacks (22.5), tackles for loss (21) and quarterback hits (39) for the second year in a row.

[85][86] In the AFC Wild Card Round against the Kansas City Chiefs, Watt recovered a fumble forced by teammate Cameron Heyward and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown in the first half of the 42–21 loss.

[89] In Week 1 against the Bengals, Watt left the game in the fourth quarter with a torn pectoral muscle during the 23–20 overtime win, after attempting to sack quarterback Joe Burrow.

[91] On October 8, it was reported that Watt had recently undergone arthroscopic knee surgery for an injury sustained in the preseason.

[95][96] In Week 1, a 30–7 loss to the 49ers, Watt would serve as one of the few bright spots for the Steelers as he sacked 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy three times, two of which resulted in forced fumbles.

In addition, his three sacks brought his career total to 80.5, tying the Steelers franchise record set by James Harrison.

Watt later recovered a Watson fumble forced by teammate Alex Highsmith and returned it 16 yards for the game-winning touchdown in the 26–22 victory over the Browns.

[98] For his strong performance in the first three games of the season, Watt was named AFC Defensive Player of the Month for September.

In Week 18, Watt would record two sacks in the season finale versus the Ravens before leaving the game late in the third quarter with a Grade 2 MCL sprain.

With 100 sacks in 109 career games with the Steelers, Watt is also the second fastest player to accomplish this statistic, only behind Reggie White.

[110] He is also only the third player in NFL history to reach 100 career sacks before the age of 30, once again succeeding White and Jared Allen.

[113] During the Steelers’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on December 15, Watt appeared to suffer a non-contact ankle injury, leaving the game during the fourth quarter.

Derek is a former fullback who was selected in the sixth round by the San Diego Chargers with the 198th overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft.