The Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to a three-year contract extension with star edge rusher T.J. Watt on Thursday that will make him the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL in terms of average annual value on the new money in his deal.
That should have come as a surprise to no one.
But despite every single Steelers beat reporter saying over and over again every time they were asked over the last three months that the Steelers would eventually sign Watt to a contract extension, and that the extension would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million a season, some were still surprised by Thursday's news .
Some were also still upset by it, which is a mindset I just cannot fathom.
The deal was more than fair, with Watt making $41 million per season in new money. There will be few, if any guarantees into the third year of the deal, meaning the Steelers will be tied to Watt through only the end of the 2027 season by this deal. They will get him for those three seasons for cap hits of $23.4, $42 and $42 million.
Watt is 30 years old. He'll turn 31 this October. By the end of the 2027 season, he'll be 33. That's unquestionably on the older side for an elite edge rusher, but there's no reason to expect Watt to fall short of this contract over the next three seasons.
Yes, Watt is getting older. Yes, he will probably never be as good as he was in 2021, when he probably had the best season of any edge rusher in NFL history. But that doesn't mean his production is going to fall off some kind of cliff.
Elite players are special. They don't age like everyone else. James Harrison and Joey Porter Sr. averaged 10 sacks per game or more in their age 31-33 seasons. Kevin Greene had 35.5. And they were nowhere near as good as Watt before that.
Are those case relatively rare when compared to the NFL at large? Yes. But Watt is rare! He always has been rare! Don't compare his aging curve to that of some average Joe Schmo.
Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt during a game against the New York Giants on Oct. 30, 2024. — Ed Thompson / Steelers Now
Watt has also been mostly healthy over his career, playing in 121 of a possible 132 games over his eight-year career.
There is also basically no downside to this deal. The Steelers have oodles and oodles of future salary cap space. They won't be paying a quarterback big money any time soon, with the plan clear to replace Aaron Rodgers with a rookie in 2026.
There will not be a player that the Steelers could plausibly want to sign over the next two offseasons that they will not be able to, because of Watt's contract.
Could the Steelers have traded Watt? Not sensically within the context of the rest of their 2025 offseason. They're trying to win games this season. They signed Aaron Rodgers and Darius Slay and traded for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smit h with the intention of doing everything possible to eliminate the team's eight-year playoff drought, while at the same time maintaining their ability to land a quarterback in 2026.
How would trading Watt possibly accomplish those goals? It certainly wouldn't help them win a playoff game this season. They already have 12 draft picks for 2026, which is plenty of ammunition to trade up. They don't need to trade Watt to get what they need there.
The Steelers got Watt at the going rate for elite edge rushers — and that market is a bit lower than it was the last time they paid him, based on percentage of the salary cap — they didn't commit to an extremely lengthy contract.
This was an easy deal for Omar Khan to make, and that's why it got done before training camp. There's little else the Steelers could've reasonably asked for.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Saunders: Steelers Deal With Watt an Easy Win
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