Once Myles Garrett got $40 million per season, the Pittsburgh Steelers were on notice.
T.J. Watt had every reason to argue he was the equal to Garrett. Both are former NFL Defensive Player of the Year winners, and both are going to walk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They’re equals in many ways. And suddenly, Garrett was making a lot more money. Watt wasn’t going to stand for that, and we found out over the summer that he wanted a big raise.
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Watt got paid. On Thursday he reportedly got a three-year, $123 million extension which, not too surprisingly, was $1 million more per season than Garrett, which was the highest ever for a defensive player. Watt is now the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. Of Watt’s new money, a whopping $108 million is guaranteed according to ESPN. It’s deserved.
It was the rare case of a player having all the leverage. What were the Steelers going to do, not pay one of their greatest players?
T.J. Watt has been a superstar
Garrett and Watt went about getting their raises in different ways. Garrett said he wanted to be traded, then magically wanted to be with the Browns for the long haul after he got a huge contract. Watt made waves too, but didn’t go as far as putting out a statement expressing his desire to leave. There was some expression of discontent through media circles by Watt, and that was enough to get the Steelers to act.
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The Steelers were backed into a corner. Watt is their best player, and even for a franchise that has had multiple legends pass through, one of the greatest players in team history. He has done everything a team would want from its superstar. The Steelers’ only hope was that Watt would stay quiet and keep working on the four-year, $112 million extension he signed after his rookie deal was up. That was not realistic when Garrett’s deal came in at $12 million more per season.
Teams cut players all the time before their contracts are finished, and Watt wanted his deal ripped up before it was finished. It was a lot of money when he signed it, and he outplayed it. He has been a Pro Bowler in seven of eight seasons and a four-time first-team All-Pro. He was NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 when he tied the NFL single-season sack record of 22.5. He has led the NFL in sacks three times.
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The Steelers wouldn’t and couldn’t argue his résumé. It was just a matter of getting a massive deal done before the acrimony started to get louder. Pittsburgh is a smart organization and it wasn’t going to let it get that far.
Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt set a new record for contracts among non-quarterbacks. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
(Mitchell Leff via Getty Images)
Steelers hold onto their biggest star
The Cincinnati Bengals might want to take note. The Steelers’ division rival hasn’t gotten a new deal done with last year’s sack leader, Trey Hendrickson, and are facing a holdout from first-round pick Shemar Stewart over language they’d like to include in rookie deals going forward over guaranteed money. Some organizations are better at handling contract disputes.
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Unlike the Garrett or Hendrickson drama, there was little question the Steelers would get Watt’s contract in line with the other top defensive players in the NFL. The only real question was how long the extension would be and if he’d top Garrett.
Watt will turn 31 years old in October, and his contract extension will take him into his mid-30s. Watt is good enough that he could be effective into his late 30s, and perhaps like Von Miller he’ll start bouncing around other teams when he’s on the final years of his career. But for the most part, the Steelers ensured that one of the most popular players in team history would spend all of his prime seasons in Pittsburgh.
Not that the team had any choice. Watt getting a hefty pay raise was the only way the story was going to end up.
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