It's only a matter of time before T.J. Watt becomes the richest defender in NFL history. Myles Garrett set a precedent for elite edge rushers when he earned $40 million per season on his four-year, $160 million contract early in the offseason, and Watt's numbers are expected to surpass the Cleveland Browns star. But there's a reason the Pittsburgh Steelers haven't been able to execute a deal yet.
As the lingering contract issues march on toward Steelers training camp, ESPN insider Adam Schefter revealed the one major hold-up preventing Watt's contract extension from happening—the length of the deal.
"I think that the issue there right now would seem to be the length of the years in the contract," Schefter said Tuesday on Unsportsmanlike. “Again, Trey Hendrickson and T.J. Watt, they want more years. The team wants to give them fewer years. Both players are in their 30s, so for the players, it's about getting as much guaranteed money as you can over a longer period of time."
It makes sense for the players. With Watt and Hendrickson being in their 30s, of course, their agents are going to try to get them the biggest payday possible. This would come with a lengthier contract and more guaranteed money attached.
Garrett, for example, earned $88.8 million in guarantees over his four-year deal, per Over the Cap. This ensures that he will earn a fully guaranteed salary through 2027. If Garrett were to suffer a major injury or if his play were to decline rapidly, the earliest the Browns could even consider getting out of his deal would be during the 2028 offseason—and they would still be forced to eat $13.6 million in dead money at that point. This is the situation the Steelers are looking to avoid.
The Steelers, meanwhile, seem reluctant to oblige. While Omar Khan and Pittsburgh's front office may be looking to ink Watt to a three-year deal that they could get out of one year sooner, things don't go as planned. Watt's team is likely seeking a four-year contract that will make him one of the league's highest-paid edge rushers for what could be the remainder of his NFL career.
The Pittsburgh Steelers may regret playing hardball with T.J. Watt
T.J. Watt has already broken precedents that this front office usually lives by. The Pittsburgh Steelers don't like to hand out fully guaranteed money past the first year of the deal, but they were forced to change this line of thinking when Watt was up for his extension during the 2021 offseason—an extension that ultimately got done in the nick of time before Week 1 of the regular season.
When Watt 'held in' four years ago, he went on to have a remarkable season that included a record-tying 22.5 sacks (though the team defense took a step back from where it was in 2020). Now, Watt is 30 years old and will turn 31 early in the 2025 season. If he sits out all summer, we can't expect him to hit the ground running like he did the last time he was up for a contract.
I understand the hold-up from Khan and the front office. The Steelers are concerned about tying too much guaranteed money into a player who may already be on a downward spiral. They don't want to find themselves in a situation two or three years from now where Watt's egregious cap numbers are egregiously hurting the team and there's no escape clause.
Schefter believes the two parties are still far away from coming to terms on a new deal, and Watt's name has recently surfaced in potential trade talks.
Still, the Pittsburgh Steelers made it clear that they want T.J. Watt to be part of this program, and a contract extension should get done eventually. Now it's a matter of figuring out which party will get its way when Watt finally puts pen to paper on a new deal.