T.J. Watt AND the Steelers are both being dumb as hell

This offseason we’ve seen something from the Pittsburgh Steelers which hasn’t been a factor in their planning for decades: Desperation. With the writing seemingly on the wall for GM Omar Khan and head coach Mike Tomlin the team has been furiously, frantically, and often nonsensically trying to find ways to improve.

One player left in the cold by all this change is edge rusher T.J. Watt, and the pass rusher has had enough. Watt has been unhappy entering the final year of a four-year extension signed in 2021, which is set to pay him $21.05 million in 2025. At the time it was a big contract but has since been dwarfed by other pass rushers in the market like Myles Garrett, Danielle Hunter, and Maxx Crosby.

As it stands Watt ranks 7th in annual pay for an EDGE rusher, and that’s been compounded by the money the Steelers have thrown around in the last 12 months, with receiver D.K. Metcalf and tight end Pat Freiermuth getting high-end extensions for their position. It’s left Watt feeling like he’s on the outside looking in, and the Steelers, who have ample cap space to get an extension done, ignorantly dragging their feet and making their star pass rusher happy.

There is no question Watt deserves a significant pay raise. When the likes of Danielle Hunter and Nick Bosa are making more money than Watt by a large margin there’s a fundamental problem. That said, what Watt is asking for is absolutely ridiculous.

This is a fundamentally ridiculous ask from Watt’s side. There is no doubt he’s a top-tier talent, but on no planet is a 30-year-old pass rusher coming off an 11.5 sack season worthy of becoming the highest-paid non-QB in the NFL — regardless of how much Watt wants to cash in on past success.

Here enters the rub with T.J. Watt: Has he ever really been as good as the numbers show? One of the biggest criticisms of Watt’s game is that he tends to really run hot and cold. There are games where he will absolutely take over on defense and single-handedly obliterate the competition, and then others where you barely hear his name called all game long.

In 2024 his 11.5 sacks came in eight games, with over a third of his sack production coming in two games against the Giants and Bengals, two of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. Even if we go back another year, to when he statistically dominated with 19.0 sacks we see that 9.5 sacks once again came against teams with offensive lines that ranked 25th or worst in pressures allowed that season.

On some level you have to appreciate executing when it matters, but Watt has never been as individually disruptive as someone like Myles Garrett, which is why Garrett is universally regarded as the best pass rusher in the NFL right now. Garrett commands a double team on almost every single snap, lest you want your quarterback being ground into tomato paste. However, Watt has never really commanded the same amount of attention from opposing offenses. His sacks and pressure often come as a product of total line pressure, and his motor allows him to get effort sacks, rather than dominating individually at the point of attack.

That might make it sound like Watt is mediocre, and that’s not my intention. He is absolutely one of the best pass rushers in the NFL and deserves to be paid like one — however, that also doesn’t mean that Watt is worthy of being the highest paid non-QB in the league, not by a long shot.

At this point both sides need to get their heads out of their asses. If the Steelers are desperate to win then they have to pay TJ Watt and make him happy. Watt also needs to realize that he’s not a rookie earning nothing, and $21.05 million for the year might be slightly underpaid, but that doesn’t mean he’s worth $40M a year — because he’s not.

We’ll wait to see who blinks first in this, but the Steelers need to be careful. If they completely acquiesce to Watt’s demands this might become one of the worst contracts in the NFL in a couple of years.