T.J. Watt is under contract through the 2025 season, and he isn’t the type to force his way out or make any public demands, but could he be contemplating what the last handful of years of his career might look like and whether that involves the Pittsburgh Steelers?
“You have to look at a guy like T.J. Watt. That’s the guy I would be a little bit concerned about because his contract is up at the end of next year,” Steelers insider Mark Kaboly said Monday via 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show. “Normally, his deal would be this year. I mean, if you’re him and you’ve been openly talking about winning and never won a playoff game and you’re a Hall of Fame player and your resume lacks that, does he contemplate saying, ‘Yo, I’m playing this sucker out? I’m not gonna win here.'”
After Watt signed his contract extension to make him the highest-paid defensive player in football in 2021, he talked about Mike Tomlin being a big part of that decision. He only wanted to sign an extension with assurances that Tomlin would be his coach.
All signs point to Tomlin staying next year, but would Watt be able to confidently sign another extension with the idea Tomlin would be around for the duration of it? Tomlin is technically under contract through 2027, but it’s hard to imagine a path to the contract seeing its full term at the moment.
Watt watched his older brother finish his career with another team. He left the Houston Texans for the Arizona Cardinals after spending 10 seasons with the team that drafted him 11th overall in 2011. It didn’t tarnish his legacy, and he remains close to the Texans in his post-career life. Could Watt take that example from his brother and look to finish the last few years of his career in another jersey?
“I’m sure there’s a handful of guys like that, but they have to be questioning themselves,” Kaboly said. “I mean, they probably won’t admit it publicly. I guarantee they don’t admit it publicly. But some of the guys have been around here for this span of futility have to be saying, ‘I don’t know what to do.'”
Watt talked about the lack of playoff success being his story prior to Saturday’s loss. It has to be demoralizing to suffer yet another loss, especially in blowout fashion.
Kaboly noted there is “absolutely no way he would ask for a trade,” but it doesn’t seem far-fetched that he could allow his contract to expire and hit the open market to join a contender for 2026. He wouldn’t be the first Steelers legend to finish his career elsewhere. Ernie Holmes, Franco Harris, Mike Webster, James Harrison, and Rod Woodson to name a few took that route.
We will see how contract talks with Watt go this offseason. If it’s anything like the last contract, we will be talking about it all the way until early September before the start of the season. Could there also be a chance that the decision is mutual? I would be surprised if the Steelers decide to move on, but it would be a lot of money dedicated to an aging player who likely won’t be around by the time their next real Super Bowl window opens.
