While the Pittsburgh Steelers have made several big moves this offseason, they’ve yet to reach a deal with T.J. Watt. Watt is seeking a contract extension, and he skipped OTAs and minicamp to show how serious he is. With training camp coming up, there’s still no end in sight to this standoff. Former NFL linebacker LaVar Arrington thinks that the Steelers need to give Watt the deal that he’s looking for.
“If T.J. Watt were to go, I don’t know, that would be a total meltdown,” Arrington said recently on the podcast 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe. “I think the pressure to sign T.J. Watt is higher than it would ever be right now. They’re going to sign T.J. Watt, whether they like it or not. The Pittsburgh Steelers are going to sign T.J. Watt. They have no other recourse but to sign T.J. Watt.”
Arrington makes a good point. At this point, with the other moves they’ve made, trading Watt wouldn’t make much sense for the Steelers. They want to win now, and it would be almost impossible for them to acquire a player better than Watt for this season. He’s arguably the best pass rusher in the league and a massive playmaker for the Steelers.
However, the point remains that no deal is done yet, and there’s no guarantee that Watt will stay with the Steelers. If the two sides can’t come to an agreement, then perhaps Watt would request a trade. That might make things messier.
It doesn’t feel like the Steelers would trade Watt, but anything is possible. It didn’t seem likely that Pittsburgh would trade Minkah Fitzpatrick, either.
While things could get ugly between the Steelers and Watt, it still seems like a long shot that the star pass rusher would get traded. Watt’s last deal didn’t get done until right before the regular season began. That’s just the way that the Steelers do business. They aren’t afraid to wait until the last minute to get a deal done. Something similar happened with Pat Freiermuth last year.
Until a contract extension gets done, speculation will likely continue about Watt’s future. The two sides will push and pull to try to get the best deal possible. Could that result in Watt being traded? Yes, but the Steelers likely feel the same way that Arrington does. If they have to trade Watt, it would be a significant step back from their goal of being championship contenders this season. That’s likely their last resort.
