Is T.J. Watt sitting out of Steelers training camp essentially a holdout?

Why Is T.J. Sitting out of Practice?

T.J. is entering his fifth season, and the Steelers had picked up his fifth-year option. As a result, he will make $10 million guaranteed this season. It would also seem highly unlikely the Steelers had no qualms about offering T.J. a hefty contract when his current one expired. In part, his upcoming expiration had a lot to do with letting Bud Dupree go to free agency. The Steelers never had the means to keep both players. By letting Dupree walk, the Steelers were committed to T.J. Watt.

However, T.J. knows his value; besides leading the league in sacks, he has had three seasons over 13 sacks. He is at this point one of the top five, if not the best edge rusher in the NFL, and he has seen the contracts signed by Joey Bosa and Myles Garrett.

So essentially, T.J. Watt wants a new contract now paying him equal to theirs. Bosa makes about $27 million a season, with Garrett in the $25 million range (with $100 million of the $125 million guaranteed). So doing the math, to make Watt happy wants a contract in the range of five years, $142 million with about $85 million guaranteed.  That would exceed  Bosa’s.

The Steelers do not generally float that much cash around in contracts. Cam Heyward’s new contract is the largest ever for a Steelers defensive player at four years $65 million. So T.J. is looking at an unprecedented contract size for a Steelers player.