The Pittsburgh Steelers have endured quite a bit of drama this offseason, and even with training camp quickly approaching, there’s still controversy surrounding this team. That’s because superstar defender T.J. Watt opted to skip mandatory minicamp as he continues to negotiate a new contract with the Steelers front office.
Watt is set to enter the final year of his four-year, $112 million contract that kicked in back in 2022. To this point, Watt has done nothing to dissuade the Steelers from handing him a new deal, but there are some roadblocks to overcome, as is the case with the majority of these big-money contracts nowadays.
While there is not believed to be any bad blood between the two sides, no deal has materialized yet. Watt wants to earn what could be his last major contract, while Pittsburgh wants to make sure they don’t hand him an outrageous deal just for the sake of doing so.
Rumors have been swirling around these negotiations for quite some time, and a recent report suggested that Watt will end up getting more than $40 million per year from the Steelers once this deal is finalized. However, that quickly got shut down by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network in blunt fashion
“I have not heard that,” Rapoport said when asked about that rumor.
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Watt could conceivably earn $40 million per year from Pittsburgh, but it’d certainly be a risk for the team. While he’s shown no signs of decline to this point, Watt is set to enter his age-31 season, and at some point, his skills are going to diminish. Do they want to potentially be tied to him for that sort of mind-boggling price tag when that happens?
Chances are, Watt will become one of the highest-paid non-quarterbacks in the NFL, but anything surpassing Myles Garrett’s four-year, $160 million contract with the Cleveland Browns seems unlikely. Anything can happen, though, meaning this situation is well worth keeping tabs on ahead of training camp.
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