Steelers OLB T.J. Watt posted a peace sign from a game on his Instagram story, which has people speculating that Watt could be upset with current contract extension negotiations.
Mark Kaboly says to “keep an eye” on the situation and doesn’t think Watt’s post was by chance. Kaboy believes an extension will eventually get done, but he thinks the price tag could be higher than expected.
Per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, he guesses that negotiations are not going as well as they had hoped. Rapoport believes they can still get to a point where both sides are happy, but he’s led to believe the two sides are not completely aligned in talks at the moment.
Watt is entering the final year of his deal in 2025 and is set to make a base salary of $21.05 million. His contract currently comes to around $28 million in average annual value, while Browns DE Myles Garrett‘s new deal is worth $40 million per season.
While it’s unlikely Watt or any other defensive player will surpass Garrett’s contract, it isn’t hard to think Watt probably wants the gap between their contracts to be closer than what Pittsburgh has presented thus far.
Pittsburgh was showing an urgency earlier this offseason to get a deal done with Watt while he expressed his interest in retiring a Steeler.
Watt, 30, is a former first-round pick of the Steelers back in 2017. He played out his four-year, $9.258 million contract and made a base salary of $1.72 million in 2020.
Pittsburgh exercised Watt’s fifth-year option for $10.089 million in 2021. He then signed a four-year extension worth over $112 million with the Steelers that included $80 million fully guaranteed at signing.
In 2024, Watt appeared in all 17 games and recorded 61 total tackles, 19 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks, six forced fumbles, two recoveries and four pass defenses.
We’ll have more on Watt as the news becomes available.
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