The Pittsburgh Steelers have a had an eventful offseason, however one hurdle stays. The face of the franchise, T.J. Watt, is now heading into the ultimate season of his contract, and the 2 sides don’t appear to be getting any nearer to an settlement. Former NFL receiver James Jones thinks the Steelers are doing their star defender a disservice.
“It’s disrespectful,” Jones stated Monday on FS1’s The Facility. “It’s disrespectful, man. We give coach [Mike] Tomlin a number of credit score for attending to the playoffs yearly, proper? Or not having a shedding season. We give him a number of credit score for that. If you happen to don’t have this boy [Watt], you gonna have a number of shedding seasons. You see Myles Garrett and also you see Maxx Crosby get extensions. And you possibly can argue that [Watt] colder than them dudes. T.J. Watt is getting disrespected proper now.”
The Steelers are getting their fair proportion of criticism for taking their time with Watt. They’ve been busy this offseason, making a couple of massive trades, and ready on Aaron Rodgers for fairly some time as nicely. Via all that point, although, they’ve did not make any progress with Watt.
That’s solely hurting them of their negotiations. Whereas we don’t know precisely how a lot cash Watt is asking for, he definitely has the argument to be paid greater than guys like Myles Garrett and Maxx Crosby, whom Jones brings up. However therein lies the issue for the Steelers. Whereas they’re taking their candy time with Watt, each of these two have gotten their very own contract extensions this offseason. And in a world the place each new extension for a star participant appears to reset the market, the Steelers may discover themselves having to pay Watt greater than $40 million per yr, the worth Garrett is presently price.
Whereas it’s a steep value to pay, the Steelers may not have a alternative. They discover it arduous to win video games with out Watt, to say the least. Jones agrees with that notion, and thinks with out him, the Steelers might be in comparison with among the worst groups within the league.
“If 90 [Watt] ain’t there, scratch it off,” Jones stated. “You’re not going nowhere, if 90’s not there. May you think about, the quarterbacks they’ve had, and no T.J. Watt? Come on man, they might be the Browns.”
It’s no secret that protection has stored the Steelers aggressive lately. As Jones mentions, the offense, and particularly the quarterback play, has been brutal throughout that stretch.
Now, Pittsburgh finds itself in a tough state of affairs. Some argue that Watt is price each penny, and so they’d definitely have a leg to face on. Nonetheless, he’s now in his 30s, and noticed his sack whole drop from 19 in 2023, to 11.5 in 2024. He’s nonetheless one of many prime gamers at his place, however his statistical drop in 2024 may fear the Steelers.
Final time these two sides went via this, issues lasted virtually all the best way till the beginning of the common season. Though it nonetheless looks like Watt will stay a Steeler, it’s potential that these negotiations take an identical path. With coaching camp beginning subsequent week, we must always begin studying some solutions quickly.
