Did the Steelers overpay T.J. Watt’s extension? You tell us.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been busy this offseason.

They traded for DK Metcalf in a deal with the Seattle Seahawks. They added Jonnu Smith and Jalen Ramsey in a trade with the Miami Dolphins. They added both Darius Slay and Juan Thornhill to their secondary as well.

Oh, and they signed Aaron Rodgers.

On Thursday the Steelers completed another bit of business, signing T.J. Watt to a three-year contract extension. Watt, who was seeking a long-term deal this offseason, is receiving a $123 million extension with

the Steelers, $108 million of which is guaranteed.

Now that this final bit of business is done, was it the right move for Pittsburgh?

nah — James Dator

Congrats to T.J. Watt for preying on the Steelers’ ludicrous desperation and getting his bag, but as a football move: Absolutely not. Don’t get me wrong, Watt is a fantastic defensive player, but he’s not even remotely close to the No. 1 defensive player in the NFL, even with a swelling salary cap.

The sack numbers have always been eye-popping with Watt, but they’re fool’s gold. Watt picks up a lot of coverage sacks, which are important in their own right, but not because he’s a game-changer. At no point is he an EDGE rusher who demands a double on every down like Myles Garrett, or past players like prime-era Von Miller and his own brother, J.J. Watt.

Pittsburgh is also really hoping that 2024 was an exception, not the rule as Watt moves past 30. In 17 starts he only had 11.5 sacks and 27 QB hits, which is a pronounced drop off based on his past performance. Even if Watt lifts his game there are some really worrying trends to his game that show he’s simply not worth so much of the cap being invested in him.

This is a guy who has a propensity for stat-padding. Again, it’s not his fault as you can only play the dudes in front of you, but 6.5 of his sacks came against teams who ranked amongst the five worst pass blocking teams in the NFL. Meanwhile, Watt registered just 5.0 sacks against teams who finished Top 15 in pressures allowed.

The Steelers are going all-in on weird things. They’re paying a metric ton to D.K. Metcalf, and now T.J. Watt. As it stands Pittsburgh are slated to have $30M in cap space next season with just 48 players under contract. That’s bad business, and this top-heavy structure sets the organization up for failure.

It’s basically Super Bowl or bust at this point, and looking at the talent of this team it’s bust which feels more likely.

yah — Mark Schofield

Okay so I’ll argue the other side here.

This is just, frankly, the cost of doing business in today’s NFL.

As James notes it does seem like the Steelers are “going all-in” this offseason. And yes, the Rodgers signing could be classified as a “weird” thing. While part of Watt’s contract may be “paying for the past,” as argued by Dejan Kovacevic on Thursday night in DK Pittsburgh Sports, there is also the fact that Watt’s cap number actually represents a smaller percentage of the team’s expenditures than does his current deal.

“The extension adds three years, $123 million deal [sic], an average of $41 million per season (AAV), to his existing contract, which had one year remaining. The AAV of Watt’s extension is 14.4% of the Steelers’ salary cap, which is nearly 1% less than his previous contract extension from 2021,” wrote Chris Halicke at DK Pittsburgh Sports.

There is also a culture/locker-room element to this deal.

Consider what we heard from Cam Heyward on this situation in recent days. Heyward — a standout defender for Pittsburgh in his own right in addition to his duties as podcaster here at SB Nation — had this to say on “The Rich Eisen Show:

“That’s my brother,” Heyward said on The Rich Eisen Show. “I want that dude to get paid what he deserves. That dude is one of the most fierce and best players in our league. He’s respected throughout the league.”

“I just want to see that guy continue to be a Pittsburgh Steeler and be a one-helmet guy,” Heyward added later.

He also shot down a potential Watt trade.

“I’m going up to Omar and telling him, that’s not happening,” Heyward said of a Watt trade. ”If there’s even a trade that gets up there, I don’t think it helps our team to trade a guy like that.”

Given the context around Watt, this was a move Pittsburgh needed to make.

nah* — Jared Mueller

As the Producer for SB Nation’s Cleveland Browns coverage at Dawgs By Nature, the asterisk (*) is required as a note to potential bias.

Watt is a very good player, and the extension was all but certain once the team signed Rodgers. However, Watt is also the perfect stress point between film watchers and box score/statistic-focused folks. As James noted above, Watt’s sack totals do not always come from his sheer dominance, the way Garrett or Parsons do.

Whether or not his tenacity, ability to keep after plays as they break down and the defense around him hold up as he ages in this contract, Watt does not impact the game at the level that his salary would imply, even if he continues to rack up stats. The Steelers had to get a deal done and Watt had all the leverage; that doesn’t mean the extension was worth it.

More from sbnation.com:

• The art of the forced fumble
• The gore, guts and horror of an NFL fumble pile
• I understand why Andrew Luck retired, because I’ve been in his shoes
• 10 unwritten rules to not screw up your NFL jersey number
• The never-before-revealed details of the infamous Eli Manning draft-day trade
• NFL referee Sarah Thomas doesn't have time for your nonsense