You’ve no doubt already heard the story about how the Pittsburgh Steelers were very interested in signing fullback Derek Watt earlier this offseason. And you’ve surely heard that he was really hoping that they would be interested. You’ve heard about the team talking to T.J. Watt about it, and how they all kept it under their hats. But you probably didn’t hear exactly how his agent presented it to him.
As Curtis Crabtree transcribes for Pro Football Talk, Watt was recently on Sirius XM radio talking about the offseason and his signing. At one point, he talks about how he was first informed of what the Steelers’ offer was for him:
So they kind of downplayed it the whole time and come the day I made my decision and had the opportunity to sign with the Steelers, they presented me with the offer without a team name at the top. So I still at this point had no clue which team it was. And all of a sudden it gets to the end and they tell me ‘how would you like to be a Pittsburgh Steeler?’ And I was like, right there, a big smile came over my face.
Watt is, of course, one of three brothers. His older brother, J.J. Watt, has spent his entire career since being drafted in the first round in 2011 with the Houston Texans. His younger brother is T.J. Watt, who was a Defensive Player of the Year runner up for the Pittsburgh Steelers in his third season a year ago.
The opportunity to play with one of his brothers was big for him, and the whole family has expressed great excitement, but they aren’t the only brothers on the team, as the Steelers also have Trey and Terrell Edmunds, whose younger sibling, Tremaine Edmunds, is a Pro Bowl linebacker for the Buffalo Bills.
The two younger Watt brothers got the chance to play together when they were in high school, and were also briefly on the same Wisconsin team in college. J.J., the oldest, was always too old, however, to be on the same team, so he has always been a little left out in that regard, and remains so.
He has admitted, however, that it would be a great opportunity if one day all three brothers could be on the same team. Him saying that sparked the imagination of Steeler Nation, but of course such a scenario remains unlikely except for a potential end-of-career budget run simply for the sake of having the opportunity to all be on the same team.
