Former Super Bowl Champion Thinks T.J. Watt Should Be ‘Pissed Off’ at Steelers
Former Denver Broncos offensive lineman and three-time Super Bowl champion Mark Schlereth thinks T.J. Watt has a valid reason to be upset with how the Pittsburgh Steelers have treated him this offseason.
“I’d be pissed off if I was T.J. Watt also,” Schlereth said on FS1’s The Breakfast Ball.
Watt created a stir in Steelers Nation on Wednesday when he posted a photo of himself putting up the peace out sign on his Instagram Story. It got many speculating that contract negotiations have not gone well with the Steelers’ brass.
“If you’re T.J. Watt, you say, ‘Wait a minute now you just made DK Metcalf a big-time player, big-time pay at the wide receiver position for our team. He’s never done squat for us,” Schlereth said. “You did that in the offseason, and now you’re flirting with Aaron Rodgers.’ That’s all we’re consumed about. That’s all we talk about. Meanwhile, I’m going into the last year of my deal and you got Myles Garrett making $20 million more than me. Unacceptable.”
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network thinks Watt’s cryptic post is a strong indication that he’s not happy with his contract situation. Maxx Crosby and Myles Garrett both got massive deals this offseason. Garrett is averaging $40 million per year, while Crosby is making $35.5 million per year.
“Rarely is it actually nothing. Generally, when a player makes a cryptic social media post … it’s almost never nothing,” Rapoport said on Good Morning Football. “T.J. Watt is in a contract negotiation situation with the Pittsburgh Steelers. … Generally, when a player makes a social media post that forces us to talk about it on TV like we’re doing right now, it is because contract negotiations are not going as well as anybody had hoped.”
J.J. Watt said last month that the Steelers messed up by not giving his brother T.J. Watt an extension sooner. They’ll now have to pay even more after Crosby and Garrett got paid handsomely.
“Reward your players earlier and reap the benefits in the long run. Dragging it out not only ends up costing more, it creates unnecessary tension. The longer you wait, the higher the price,” J.J. Watt wrote on X in response to a Brett Kollerman post that said dragging stuff out is the worst way to do things.
J.J. Watt also said on the Pat McAfee Show that the Steelers should have extended T.J. Watt last year.
“The earlier you get the deal done, the better deal you get. That’s just a fact,” Watt said. “That’s why, my personal belief, they should have done it last year because I think there was a hometown discount to be had last year. But now the longer you wait this year, you’ve got Micah [Parsons] coming up. Like you said, you got Aidan Hutchinson, you got Myles [Garrett]. These guys are getting new deals.
“That number’s gonna inch closer to four in front of than threes. So you’re gonna want to get that done earlier rather than later because the price isn’t going down.”
Watt, 30, did have a bit of a down year in 2024, registering the third least sacks in a season (11.5) in his career. The other two seasons were his rookie year (seven sacks) and 2022 (5.5 sacks) when he played in just 10 games due to a knee injury.
Watt has also never won a playoff game, so there’s been some speculation that he would want to move on somewhere else to compete for a Super Bowl. He shut down those rumors, however, stating that he wants to be with the Steelers for the rest of his career.
“I want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler,” Watt said. “You guys know that. I don’t want to leave this place. I want to be part of the solution. I’ve put so much into it here.”
Watt is heading into the final year on his contract, but he’s expected to receive an extension this offseason.
“I feel like we have the pieces,” Watt said. “It’s what I said a week ago going into the game. It doesn’t change just because of the loss. I still have a lot of belief in the people in this building because I see the work that’s behind the scenes.”