The Pittsburgh Steelers have 18 free agents of different categories this season and two more players who are already free to sign with any team—S Eric Rowe and ILB Myles Jack. There aren’t a ton of notable players among that list, but CB Levi Wallace, QB Mason Rudolph, All-Pro ST Miles Killebrew, and ILB Kwon Alexander are some of the bigger names to headline the list.
Pro Football Focus released a list of players whom each team cannot afford to lose in the upcoming free agency cycle, and it cited DT Armon Watts for the Steelers. Here is what PFF’s Brad Spielberger had to say of his inclusion on this list:
“Pittsburgh has very few pending free agents of note, which is generally a good thing, but Armon Watts was quietly a very effective rotational interior defensive lineman with the ability to push the pocket and work off Cameron Heyward, rookie Keeanu Benton and Larry Ogunjobi…Watts recorded a pressure rate above 10 percent on the interior, and his 73.8 run-defense grade was a career high by more than 10 grading points.”
Watts was added to the roster last April on a one-year deal. He spent the first three seasons of his career with the Minnesota Vikings before spending one year with the Chicago Bears prior to joining the Steelers. He ended up being a necessity this season as Heyward suffered a groin injury in Week One that sidelined him for six games. The Steelers had drafted Benton, the defensive tackle from Wisconsin, in the second round of the draft, but Tomlin typically likes to ease rookies into the starting lineup and Watts allowed them to do so.
Over the time Heyward was injured, Watts played just under 23 defensive snaps per game to help share the load, and just as Heyward was returning DT Montravius Adams suffered an ankle injury that forced him to miss the next four games. Over those four games, Watts played 20 snaps per game. He quietly provided stability to a defensive line that otherwise would have been in some trouble with all the injuries.
Watts finished the season with 15 combined tackles (six solo), three quarterback hits, and a half sack in 15 games played. He logged more snaps than two young drafted players in DeMarvin Leal and Isaiahh Loudermilk and played the fifth-most snaps of the defensive linemen in 2023. He also appeared in the Steelers’ Wild Card playoff game against the Buffalo Bills and logged one tackle.
Heyward will be 35 years old by the time next season starts and the rigors of the NFL season will continue to be hard on his body. Ogunjobi probably isn’t going anywhere, but generally underperformed relative to the contract extension given to him last March. The Steelers will likely look to add help in both free agency and the NFL draft, but Watts could continue to be a solid rotational player on a cheap contract in 2024.
Obviously, having Watts as the player on this list for the Steelers is a good problem to have as the Steelers don’t have that many high-priority internal free agents to try to sign to a new contract. Free agency will begin on March 13, a little over a month and a half from now.
