The Steelers have three powerful pass rushers signed to big deals for 2026, but should they carry them into 2027? Mike DeFabo believes that, while it makes sense to hold onto them now, next year makes sense to recoup value. And while he sees the sense in Alex Highsmith, he has another potential trade move in mind.
“It makes sense to me — especially on a team in a win-now posture behind a 42-year-old QB — to keep all of the outside linebackers this season”, he wrote recently. Of the Steelers’ top three pass rushers T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig are signed for three-plus seasons. Alex Highsmith is only under contract through 2027, though.
“Next offseason is the right time to move one” of the Steelers’ pass rusher, he argued. “Highsmith is more likely to be traded because he’d have just one year left on his contract and my sense is the Steelers would like Watt to be a ‘one helmet’ guy. However, I would seriously consider moving Watt next offseason for a haul. If he has a bounce-back season, I don’t think a first-round pick would be out of the question considering what the Browns got for Myles Garrett and what the Ravens were prepared to give up for Maxx Crosby”.
The Steelers are perceived as a more sentimental organization than most, with a belief in “one-helmet” guys, and other than Cam Heyward, Watt is certainly the most one-helmety on the current roster. But there’s a point at which sentiment deters improvement. Watt is older than the Steelers’ other pass rushers, and diminishing returns seem inevitable.
I don’t know that Watt, at 32 next spring, would still fetch a first-round pick, even with a strong bounce-back season. Pass rushers are always at a premium, but the Steelers are dealing an older commodity than Micah Parsons, Myles Garrett, or the ill-fated Maxx Crosby trade. Garrett is more than a full year younger than Watt, and would have been traded a year earlier, coming off a record-breaking season.
Through 11 games last season, Watt recorded 7 sacks, 9 tackles for loss, 3 forced fumbles, and an interception. After the following two games—without adding to his sack total—he suffered a punctured lung. He missed three games, returning in a limited capacity for the season finale. The Steelers’ other pass rushers had to hold down the fort without him, even starting a rookie Jack Sawyer for one game.
While that shows the obvious importance of depth, the Steelers should hope that Sawyer will be a regular part of their pass rushers by the 2027 season. He’ll be in Year 3 by then, and coming off a solid rookie campaign. Frankly, if they can’t find success with Herbig, Highsmith, and Sawyer by next season, then their draft strategy failed.
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