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USA Today
27 minutes ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Top player reactions to T.J. Watt's record deal — including ex-Steelers WR George Pickens
Worry not, Steelers fans — after signing a record-setting three-year, $123 million contract extension, T.J. Watt is staying in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future, and his teammates couldn't be more excited. Watt took to Instagram to celebrate the news of his massive extension, prompting several Steelers teammates — such as TE Pat Freiermuth, OT Troy Fautanu, and fellow OLB Nick Herbig — to offer their congratulations and reactions. Additionally, LB Patrick Queen, who was recently named to the NFL Top 100 list, responded with a hilarious GIF — while even George Pickens, who was traded out of Pittsburgh in May, showed respect for Watt's record deal. The Pittsburgh Steelers' newest cornerback, Jalen Ramsey, shared his excitement over the news on X. LESGO! 🙏🏾 While not a Steeler, T.J.'s brother J.J. Watt shared a heartfelt congratulations on social media — and hilariously reacted to the contract amount, which can be read here. @_TJWatt @steelers Steelers fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief — as Watt's new deal all but guarantees his attendance at next week's training camp, which will be covered extensively here at Steelers Wire. For up-to-date Steelers coverage, follow us on X @TheSteelersWire and give our Facebook page a like.
Fox Sports
an hour ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
T.J. Watt Extension Was Essential to Prove Steelers Are All-In for 2025
For all the offseason drama, this was inevitable. If the Steelers were really going all-in on 2025 — signing Aaron Rodgers, trading for DK Metcalf and Jalen Ramsey and more — how could they not take care of T.J. Watt? After all, he's as responsible as any current player for Pittsburgh's sustained success. The Steelers made Watt the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history on Thursday, with a three-year deal that will average $41 million. That's more per year than the Browns gave Myles Garrett and even more than the Bengals gave receiver Ja'Marr Chase. Watt deserves it. The 30-year-old edge rusher has led the NFL in sacks in three of his past four healthy seasons: 15 in 2020, 22.5 in 2021 (tying the league record) and 19 in 2023. That puts him at 108 for his career, 6.5 shy of his brother J.J., a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year and future Pro Football Hall of Famer. T.J. has been named a Pro Bowler in seven straight seasons, already two more than J.J., whose career was limited by nagging injuries. By his sacks, you could count last season as a down year for Watt — "only" 11.5 — but he finished second in tackles for losses with 19, and more importantly, he led the NFL with six forced fumbles. Pittsburgh has been a good-not-great team with frustrating consistency, good enough to have a .500 record or better in all 16 of Mike Tomlin's seasons as head coach, but losing its past five playoff games. What the Steelers did best last year, and what will make life much easier for Rodgers at age 41, is force turnovers as well as any defense in the NFL. They tied for the league lead with 33 takeaways, also tying with 16 forced fumbles, trailing only Buffalo with the NFL's second-best turnover margin at plus-16. That's an advantage Rodgers hasn't had lately, with his Packers and Jets teams a net-zero in turnover margin in his last two healthy seasons. Watt has already forced 33 fumbles in his career, the fourth-most ever in a player's first eight seasons, trailing only Dwight Freeney, Robert Mathis and the late Derrick Thomas. He already has one NFL Defensive Player of the Year award on his résumé, from 2021, but has a real shot at another, trying to keep up with younger elite edge rushers like Detroit's Aidan Hutchinson and Dallas' Micah Parsons. So much of this offseason's attention for the Steelers has been on newcomers — first Metcalf as an elite receiver, then Rodgers as the team continues to try to find any kind of playmaking passer in the post-Ben Roethlisberger era. Most recently, the team acquired Ramsey, a decorated All-Pro corner to upgrade a crucial position on defense. But it's only fair that Pittsburgh wrote the biggest check to one of their own, a star who's played his entire career with the Steelers but has yet to know the joy of a playoff win. If there's one specific area where Watt would probably like to surpass his brother's storied career, it's in enjoying a real, sustained playoff run. J.J. never won more than a single playoff game in any season, and just three in his career, and T.J. has a chance to pull that off as part of a talented, veteran Steelers team. Success this season for Pittsburgh will not be about simply extending Tomlin's streak of avoiding a losing record, but in giving Rodgers a proper sendoff. He hasn't had more than one playoff win in any season since his lone Super Bowl in 2010, and this is likely his final chance to show his post-Packers years were more than just a footnote. As a final act of summer to head into training camp with resolution and momentum, signing Watt was a no-brainer for the Steelers, a huge contract in an economic echelon once reserved for the league's best quarterbacks. You don't make $41 million a year to win awards or finish with a winning record yet again. You earn that in January, and even February, a month Pittsburgh hasn't seen in 15 years. The goal for the Steelers is to get closer to that this year, and Watt will be a huge part of any playoff success they can find. Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! recommended Item 1 of 3 Get more from the National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
USA Today
an hour ago
- Sport
- USA Today
T.J. Watt's monster deal cements the Steelers as the NFL's 2025 Expendables
The Pittsburgh Steelers completely embraced their 2025 status as the NFL's Expendables on Thursday by extending outside linebacker T.J. Watt to a record-breaking new deal. Watt will be 31 this fall, and the deal may well lock him in for the rest of his NFL career as a Steeler. On its face, it's a perfectly sensible contract. Watt is one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL, and of anyone around, you get him being the new highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL. However, Watt's new deal coincides with an offseason of Pittsburgh throwing massive resources at aging veterans to heighten its Super Bowl chances for 2025. No move was more indicative of that than signing a 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, who is already signaling this will probably be his last season in the league. After years of being just good enough to make the playoffs under coach Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have now paid Watt a lot of money, signed Rodgers, cornerback Darius Slay, safety Juan Thornhill and wide receiver Robert Woods as free agents and traded for wide receiver DK Metcalf, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith. The team has also traded away wide receiver George Pickens and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. Metcalf is 27 and still should have a lot of good football in him, but he's the only major non-drafted addition for Pittsburgh this offseason that will be under the age of 30 once the season starts outside of Thornhill (who will be 30 in October). To be fair to the Steelers, having a lot of battle-tested veterans is not necessarily a bad thing for a team that typically achieves the postseason... but not much more than that. You can see the arguments in full for Pittsburgh; if we're going to go all-in on the moment at hand, we really might as well go all-in on this exact moment. Signing Rodgers cements the short-term confidence in spades. The Expendables always got the job done in the movies, even if they were all seasoned crime-fighters with the milage dwindling on the odometer. If Pittsburgh gets where it wants this year, it will have all been worth it. If it doesn't, you can argue that even this much short-term squeezing of potential isn't all that much different than how things usually go for the Steelers in recent years. This approach carries with it an aura of finality. If the Steelers can't make even this aggressive push work to get past the first round of the playoffs, it really might be time for the franchise to reconsider its direction and mount a youth movement. That's already happened in a way up front, where most of the starting offensive linemen are recent draft picks. It's a bit of weird fit to throw Rodgers behind an offensive line that's still growing together, but you feel more confident in the direction of the trenches long-term than you do who is throwing the ball. The Steelers are going to have to come to terms with the fact that a failed 2025 really might be the biggest indicator yet that the franchise is just stuck in neutral. Winning records are great, but if that's all you get time and time again, when do you just consider that it might be time to reset the franchise nucleus for a higher ceiling? Tomlin is a future Hall of Fame coach, but will he be the right fit for the next five-plus years? The Steelers are one of the most interesting teams in the NFL this fall, if only because it really feels as if this era of Steelers football comes down to how high this roster's ceiling really is. If it really is a Super Bowl contender, Pittsburgh will look yet again like geniuses. If it's just a middle-of-the-road playoff contender, wholesale changes might be necessary to restore the franchise back to its previous glories. Either way, the clock is ticking in Steel City, and it can't afford to go backwards or stay in place.
an hour ago
- Sport
The Pittsburgh Steelers make star linebacker T.J. Watt the NFL's highest-paid defender
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers made star outside linebacker T.J. Watt the NFL's highest-paid defensive player on Thursday, signing him to a pact that will keep the perennial All-Pro in black-and-gold well into his 30s. Watt, who was entering the final season of the four-year extension he signed in 2021, is scheduled to make $123 million over the course of the three-year agreement, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract had not yet been made public. ESPN first reported the extension. Watt appeared to celebrate by making a rare Instagram post on Thursday afternoon, sharing a picture of him flexing in his signature No. 90 jersey. Watt also posted a photo in his Instagram stories of him posing alongside protégé and third-year Steelers outside linebacker Nick Herbig. The average annual value of $41 million eclipses the previous record contract for a defender set by Cleveland defensive lineman and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett in March. The value also eclipses the average salary of Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase, who became the league's highest-paid non-quarterback after agreeing to a new contract worth $40.25 million a season. The fact that Watt's extension is worth 2.5% more per season than Garrett's (whose overall total value of $204 million is still higher than Watt's) is not a coincidence. Watt, the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler, has long believed he is the best edge rusher in the NFL. For the second time in four years, he's being paid like it. Watt, who turns 31 in November, took the unusual step of skipping mandatory minicamp last month in hopes of putting pressure on Pittsburgh's front office to get something done. Head coach Mike Tomlin brushed off Watt's absence, saying it was only a matter of time before things worked themselves out. The timing couldn't be better. The new-look Steelers — now led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers — report to training camp at Saint Vincent College next Wednesday. They'll do it with a familiar face in tow. Watt, who tied an NFL record by racking up 22 1/2 sacks in 2021, is the linchpin of a defense that will be relied on heavily if the Steelers want to end a playoff drought that stretches back to the 2016 AFC Championship, a few months before the Steelers selected Watt with the 30th overall pick in the 2017 draft.
UPI
an hour ago
- Sport
- UPI
T.J. Watt, Pittsburgh Steelers agree to record $123M extension
1 of 5 | Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt totaled 108 sacks through the first 121 appearances of his NFL career. File Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI | License Photo July 17 (UPI) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers agreed to a three-year, $123 million contract extension with All-Pro linebacker T.J. Watt. Sources told NFL Network, ESPN and The Athletic that the pact includes $108 million fully guaranteed at signing. Watt's average annual salary of $41 million -- from 2026 through 2028 -- will be the highest in NFL history for a non-quarterback. Watt, 30, signed a four-year, $112 million extension with the Steelers in 2021. That deal, which was restructured, was entering its final year. The seven-time Pro Bowl selection, four-time All-Pro and 2021 Defensive Player of the Year appeared in all 17 games for the Steelers over each of the last two seasons. Watt logged 61 combined tackles, 27 quarterback hits, 19 tackles for a loss, 11.5 sacks, a league-high six forced fumbles, four passes defensed and two fumble recoveries last season. The eight-year veteran, who joined the Steelers as the No. 30 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, led the NFL in sacks in 2023, 2022 and 2021. His 22.5 sacks in 2021 tied Michael Strahan's NFL record for the most in a single season. Watt reached his total in 15 games, compared to Strahan's 16 appearances in 2001 for the New York Giants. Watt's 108 sacks through his first 121 appearances in the NFL are the sixth-most among active players and rank No. 31 on the league's all-time list since the statistic became official in 1982. Steelers players will report for training camp Wednesday at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa.
