The Pittsburgh Steelers recently extended the contract of star safety, Minkah Fitzpatrick. Which player is next in line to get their bag?
It wasn’t a surprise to see the Pittsburgh Steelers prioritize the contract extension of Minkah Fitzpatrick above all the other players on the team who are still waiting for a deal. Since trading for the former 11th overall pick, Fitzpatrick has been an intricate part of Pittsburgh’s defense and was critical to their success over the past three seasons.
It was very easy to predict that Minkah was going to become the highest-paid safety in the league (and ultimately in NFL history) thanks to the impressive accolades he had received by the age of 25 years old. Now the Steelers have both T.J. Watt and Minkah Fitzpatrick locked up for the foreseeable future — two players who stand to play a pivotal role on this team moving forward.
With Minkah’s deal out of the way, fans are eager to find out Omar Khan’s next move. Last year, t took the Steelers all summer to reach terms on a new deal with Watt. In the process, he sat out nearly all of training camp and missed the entire preseason.
This year, Khan — the Steelers new general manager — already appears to be ahead of schedule. Because there is still so much time between now and the start of training camp, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another contract extension or two get done, but who is next in line?
Steelers could sign Boswell next
The name that fans are itching to hear is Diontae Johnson. Johnson has been Pittsburgh’s top wide receiver since entering the league in 2019, and he’s coming off a career year in 2021 in which he recorded 107 receptions, 1,161 yards, and 8 touchdowns, according to Pro Football Reference.
Though Johnson is certainly going to receive a nice paycheck soon, there are a few reasons why we could see a Chris Boswell contract extension happen first.
For starters, Boswell has been terrific over the past three years. While there’s always a chance that a kicker hits a wall at some point in his career, Boswell has been excellent since his only down season in 2018. In fact, you could make the case that he’s been the second-best kicker in the league during this span — next to only the great Justin Tucker.
Because of his history and consistency, the Steelers should have no hesitation in giving him a lofty new extension. Likewise, his money is going be really easy to figure out. Based on his kicking efficiency and pedigree of work, Boswell’s deal is going to slot in right around the money that Tucker is making (roughly $5 million per season). In fact, he will probably come in just over this mark, as Tucker received his extension back in 2019.
If you know how the process works, these numbers really aren’t negotiable. Based on his body of work, it’s easy to predict that Boswell becomes the NFL’s highest-paid kicker very soon, and Pittsburgh can’t justify not doing so.
On the other hand, a potential extension for Johnson is a bit more of a sticky situation. Because of the volume numbers he produced after being peppered with targets last year, Johnson seems likely to earn somewhere in the ballpark of $20 million per season. This would instantly elevate him to one of the top-10 highest-paid receivers in the league, via Over the Cap.
However, there’s much more of a debate here as to whether or not Johnson should earn this type of money. While the raw numbers look good on paper, Johnson was just 76th in the NFL in yards per target last season (among players with at least 50 targets), via StatHead. He has also had a whopping 22 dropped passes over the past two years — 7 of which came in the final 7 games of the 2021 season (and into the playoffs).
I feel pretty confident that Diontae Johnson is going to get his deal eventually, but there could be a lot more back and forth discussion when it comes to his contract numbers and the guaranteed money that will be involved. On the other hand, Boswell has been one of the very best in the NFL at his position, and we have a terrific idea of what he’s going to earn on a new extension. This is a deal that could get done sooner.