T.J. Watt’s decision not to report to minicamp surprised some reporters, but not those inside of the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. Although it is uncommon for a player in a contract dispute to skip mandatory minicamp, they seemed to expect this. That is, at least, according to Brooke Pryor, who spoke to Adam Schein recently on SiriusXM.
“I was not surprised that he was not at minicamp”, the ESPN reporter said of Watt. “No one in the building was surprised that he was not at minicamp. If there is an element of surprise here, it dates back to earlier this offseason when I was having conversations with people in the building who kind of said, ‘We thought this T.J. Watt deal would be easier to get done because it’s a no-brainer. We want him here, he wants to be here’”.
The organization has been very clear about its intention of keeping Watt long-term. Even though he skipped minicamp, there is no indication that Watt has any desire to leave Pittsburgh. He simply wants the Steelers to honor him with a contract that reflects his market value.
Although he didn’t skip minicamp last time around, Watt did hold in during training camp amidst previous contract talks. No-showing to a contractually mandatory event takes things to a new level, but perhaps that is the purpose.
“I think what they were not anticipating is how serious T.J. Watt is about being at the top of the market”, Pryor said. “And I think at that point, too, they weren’t necessarily anticipating Myles Garrett resetting the market in such a big way”.
The Cleveland Browns signed Garrett to a $40 million APY contract, which blew up the edge rusher pay scale. Nobody else is earning close to that, though there are still some pending deals, like Micah Parsons. In skipping minicamp, Watt is perhaps signaling that he feels the Steelers need to pay him Myles Garrett money.
Pryor interpreted Watt’s no-show to minicamp as communicating to the Steelers the simple message that they rely on him—which they do—and that he is not going to settle for being outpaid by others at his position when he is at the top.
She senses there is “good faith” on both sides of the negotiation, but “this is him playing hardball”. While it seems a bit out of character for T.J. Watt to skip minicamp, he is a businessman, after all. Teams treat their deals with players like a business arrangement, so it’s only fair players reciprocate.
Like Liam Neeson, T.J. Watt has a very particular set of skills that places him in great demand. Although Pryor said the possibility of the Steelers trading Watt would be shocking, they have to know how the rest of the NFL views him.
And he knows how the Steelers view him, which is second to none—not to Garrett, not to Parsons. They know they have the best defensive player in the NFL. But they also know that the contract market suddenly exploded, and now they have to deal with the consequences. The first is T.J. Watt skipping minicamp, which is tame enough, but how much more will they risk?
