The Pittsburgh Steelers will have to give T.J. Watt a huge contract. After Maxx Crobsy’s new contract that came in at $35.5 million per year, it certainly seems like Watt will get that much money and more.
His brother, J.J. Watt, believes the Steelers may have messed this one up, though. While there is little question that T.J. will return to the Steelers and wants to remain with the franchise, J.J. believes Pittsburgh could have had a hometown discount last year. Now, with the rising edge rusher prices this year, that seems to be off the table.
“The earlier you get the deal done, the better deal you get. That’s just a fact,” Watt said on the Pat McAfee Show Thursday. “That’s why, my personal belief, they should have done it last year because I think there was a hometown discount to be had last year. But now the longer you wait this year, you’ve got Micah [Parsons] coming up. Like you said, you got Aidan Hutchinson, you got Myles [Garrett]. These guys are getting new deals. That number’s gonna inch closer to four in front of than threes. So you’re gonna want to get that done earlier rather than later because the price isn’t going down.”
Currently, the future starts at $36 million, though T.J. will try to push that up more. As J.J. mentions, there will be several top edge rushers in line for new contracts, including Micah Parsons, Aidan Hutchinson, Myles Garrett, and the impending trade for Trey Hendrickson. Yet, general manager Omar Khan made it clear that T.J. is someone they want to keep around.
“T.J.’s one of those legacy guys,” Khan said. “I was around Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu. Those guys played their entire careers here and that’s a special thing. I’m hopeful and confident that T.J. will be one of those guys.”
The Steelers have all the cap space to do a massive deal, but Watt is 30 years old and showed signs of decline as the season wore along last year. A big deal like this with Watt aging could be a bit more risky. It depends on where his game goes from here on out, but with Watt commanding more help than ever from offenses; it seems likely the Steelers will re-sign him to build around him as their superstar.
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