Ray Fittipaldo: If the Steelers are having trouble locking up T.J. Watt, they have the Browns to blame

Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Apr 15, 2025

Published in Football

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PITTSBURGH — When Cam Heyward was unhappy with the status of his contract negotiations last spring, the Steelers captain and face of the franchise brought up the possibility he could finish his career elsewhere. He also sat out a portion of last year's voluntary spring workouts to signal to ownership he was ready to play hard ball if need be.

In the end, both sides got what they wanted: Heyward got a new three-year, $45 million contract shortly before the season began, and the Steelers got one of their legacy players to be a "one-helmet guy," as Mike Tomlin likes to label special players in franchise lore.

Now the Steelers and T.J. Watt are in a similar spot this spring as Watt enters the final year of his contract. On locker cleanout day, he told reporters he wanted to finish his career with the Steelers, and team president Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan have expressed their desire to sign him to a new contract that can make that a reality.

So when Watt cryptically posted a photo of himself on Instagram this week giving the "peace out" sign, the speculation began in earnest.

Is he upset at how negotiations are going?

Is he fed up with how the club has handled player acquisition this offseason, namely the ongoing drama involving Aaron Rodgers?

Or does he want a sauna at the team facility — or else?

Whatever the case is, can we all agree the NFL edge market is way out of whack and the other 31 teams in the league can thank the Cleveland Browns for that?

When Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett requested a trade shortly after last season ended, their owner, Jimmy Haslam, panicked. Instead of merely making Garrett the highest-paid edge rusher in the NFL, he made him the highest-paid edge rusher by $5 million a year.

When Garrett signed a four-year contract worth $160 million, including $89 million in fully guaranteed money, he didn't reset the edge rusher market. He shattered it.

Maxx Crosby had just become the highest-paid edge rusher in the league on March 6, when he signed a three-year deal worth $106.5 million that included $62.5 million in full guarantees. Three days later, the Browns signed Garrett.

This, of course, is the same Jimmy Haslam who paid out a fully guaranteed $250 million contract to quarterback Deshaun Watson when no other team was close to bidding that high for his services. And we all know how that turned out.

The Browns are the worst-run NFL franchise and perhaps take that crown for all four professional sports leagues.

But the Garrett deal isn't just bad business for the Browns. It's bad news for the Steelers, who have to deal with the fallout.

Garrett and Watt entered the league in 2017 with vastly different expectations. Garrett was the No. 1 overall pick, while Watt was the No. 30 overall pick, barely making it into the first round.

Watt, however, has outperformed Garrett by almost every statistical measure. He has more sacks (108-102), more forced fumbles (33-20), fumble recoveries (12-6) and interceptions (7-0). They have the same number of All-Pro honors (six) and NFL Defensive Player of the Year awards (one).

Watt deserves to be paid more than Garrett, but why should the Steelers allow the Browns to set the market with a bloated contract?

And why are edge rushers now entering the quarterback stratosphere of contracts? When Watt set the market in 2021, he made an average annual salary of a little more than $28 million per season. To get that contract to the finish line, the Steelers for the first time in their history fully guaranteed the first two years of the deal at a price tag of $80 million.

Sure, the salary cap has increased in the past four years, but paying defensive players quarterback money makes no sense.

Just look at Watt and Garrett. They've been the class of the league at their position for almost a decade now and they have one playoff victory between them. And Garrett's came against Watt and the Steelers during the 2020 COVID season.

It won't be long before we have our first $50 million-per-year edge rusher. In the meantime, the Steelers would be smart to get Watt's deal done sooner rather than later. Micah Parsons and the Cowboys are currently negotiating a new deal, and Aidan Hutchinson, the young star of the Detroit Lions, is up for a new deal, as well.

If the Steelers really do want Watt to finish his career in Pittsburgh, they're going to have to pony up. They might not have to approach the $40 million per year number, but they're going to have to match or exceed the $89 million in full guarantees Garrett received.

And they might as well do it now while the price is fixed.

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