The Pittsburgh Steelers have some interesting names at the top of their payroll this year. Here are the most expensive offensive players in 2022.
If you are concerned about how the Pittsburgh Steelers have allocated their money, you might want to look away. This article isn’t for the faint of heart.
The good news is that we can see some light at the end of the tunnel. Steelers fans should be reasonably optimistic about the youth and upside this offense could offer in the near future. The bad news is that Pittsburgh isn’t exactly making good use of their cap space on the offensive side of the football in 2022.
Here are the three most costly Steelers offensive players this year:
3. Derek Watt: $4.7M cap number
While a $4.7 million cap charge might not seem like a huge number, this is a lot of money to dish out to a fullback — particularly one who barely sees the field for offense. In 2021, Derek Watt was used on just 86 total offensive plays, according to Pro Football Reference. This equates to just 7 percent of offensive snaps on the season.
I know that one of the main reasons Watt was signed in the first place was because of his quality special teams ability. While this can’t be underestimated, you don’t pay a player nearly $5 million against the cap if he can’t contribute regularly.
Fans have speculated that Watt’s signing was an incentive to keep his little brother T.J. around on a reasonable deal. I can’t speak to that. I’m betting the plan is to use Derek in a larger capacity in Matt Canada’s offense this year, but there’s no guarantee he even makes the final roster — especially with rookie Connor Heyward capable of taking on similar duties.