Our brief-ish national nightmare is over: TJ Watt got paid.
Things got a little dicey there for a bit, but the news that everyone's been expecting all summer finally dropped on Thursday afternoon – Watt and the Steelers agreed to a three-year, $123 million extension, $108M of which is fully guaranteed. Based on yearly averages, he's now the highest-paid non-QB in league history.
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Now comes a few well-earned victory laps on the internet, and then some reaction. A deal like this almost always has some ramifications for not just the Steelers, but teams all over the league. So at first glance, here are some winners and losers from the deal:
Winners and losers after TJ Watt signed a massive contract extension with the Steelers
Winner: TJ Watt
I'm sorry – I do feel legitimately bad having to start at such an obvious point, but I wouldn't be doing a very good job as a sports blogger if I didn't point out that being paid one hundred and twenty three million dollars to play sports is a good idea. Watt's been in line for a raise for a while now, and despite some weird it's-the-middle-of-summer twitter rumors about potentially asking for a trade (agents really should mix it up every once in a while), it always just felt like a matter of time. Now that The Open Market has been good to him, he can put contract stuff behind him and just focus on playing ball, which I bet is almost word-for-word what he says in whatever celebratory press conference is coming.
Loser: The Cincinnati Bengals
Thing about the Bengals is that it's always something with them. They're always just sitting there, on the peripheral of every major NFL move, looking worse for it. In a way, it's kinda charming. The Watt extension is more of the same: turns out it's not that hard to pay your 30-year old pass rushing star. I'm not sure how much this really changes the number that Hendrickson is looking for, but it's certainly not a good for the almighty optics. The fact that this is all happening inside the AFC North is just gravy at this point.
Winner: Alex Highsmith
If it feels like Highsmith just signed a big extension of his own, that's because you're exactly right. He did. But it's never too early to look at the next deal, and Highsmith's current deal only runs through 2027, when he'll be 30 years old. If we've learned anything about the NFL this offseason, it's that teams aren't afraid to pay pass-rushers who are close to or already in their 30's – if Highsmith can rebound from a kinda-meh 11-game 2024 season, a second big deal doesn't seem that out of the question. Now he gets to try and do that against a bunch of single blocks and tight ends.
Loser: Maxx Crosby
It's hard to *totally* call Maxx Crosby a loser for two reasons: 1. he did, after all, just sign a three-year, $109 million extension earlier this offseason, and 2. he's terrifying. But as edge rushers have had an all-time great run of summer capitalism this year, I wouldn't totally blame Crosby for being a little annoyed with his agent. The deal he signed just a few months ago is now 15% cheaper than the top of the market, which I don't need to tell you is absolutely wild, but I'm going to anyways: it's absolutely wild.
Winner: Every other really good edge rusher in free agency for the next half-decade
Hopefully Watt's working on comission.