The Pittsburgh Steelers’ two major national narratives surrounding Aaron Rodgers and T.J. Watt have nothing to do with one another. That is the view of Gerry Dulac, the most prominent Steelers reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. With the team waiting for Rodgers to sign a contract and attempting to sign Watt to an extension, some have wondered if there is an intersection point between the two.
The thinking is that, with the Steelers unsure whether they will need money for Rodgers, they are slow-walking Watt’s extension. Most estimate that Rodgers would take roughly $30 million to sign. If he doesn’t quite hit the mark, Watt’s extension should be in the vicinity of $40 million APY.
But there is no correlation between the two situations with Rodgers and Watt for the Steelers, Dulac suggests. “What they are offering Rodgers and what they will pay TJ are miles apart. I don’t think a Rodgers signing has anything to do with what they will do with TJ”, he wrote in a recent chat.
It was Mark Kaboly of The Pat McAfee Show who first speculated there may be a connection between the two. “They want to see what Rodgers is going to get”, he said of the Steelers, and “whatever is left, they might say, ‘Okay, T.J. [Watt]. This is it’”.
That is, of course, ridiculous, because there are 1,001 ways to structure contracts around a salary cap. The Steelers wouldn’t offer T.J. Watt less over a multi-year extension because they need to accommodate a mid-level quarterback contract. Rest assured, the Steelers can afford to sign Aaron Rodgers and extend T.J. Watt. Even if many fans don’t want them to do either of those things.
The Steelers rarely do this type of business with extensions in April, we should acknowledge. That Watt isn’t already locked up through 2028 or thereabouts isn’t exactly a local scandal, but rather business as usual. As for Rodgers, the unusual is business as usual where he is concerned. According to reports, the Steelers have had an offer on the table for him for weeks. Indications are his delay in signing has nothing to do with the contract itself.
It is true that the Steelers don’t like to juggle multiple situations simultaneously, and Rodgers is a flaming bowling pin. Juggling him isn’t easy—but then again, at this point, they’re just sitting around waiting. It’s annoying, but not particularly time consuming, I would imagine. As far as Watt goes, it’s premature to call anything a “hold-up” because they ordinarily don’t do extensions this early. They should, and should have in this case, but that doesn’t indicate a departure from their norms.
If anything is delaying an extension for T.J. Watt, it’s Myles Garrett, and not Aaron Rodgers. It was Garrett’s disproportionate $40 million APY deal that has complicated all subsequent extensions for edge rushers. The Steelers already ceded ground on the guaranteed money front, and they were previously willing to make him the highest-paid player at his position. But the high bar has jumped about 42 percent in just four short years, which is ridiculous and obscene. Aaron Rodgers’ ridiculousness is a separate entity unto itself.
