T.J. Watt & Steelers agree to HISTORIC extension 💰 ‘Pittsburgh did the right thing!’ – RC | Get Up

T.J. Watt & Steelers agree to HISTORIC extension 💰 ‘Pittsburgh did the right thing!’ – RC | Get Up

be getting into some baseball WNBA All-Star game this weekend. But we begin with news out of Pittsburgh. TJ Watt and the Steelers have agreed to a three-year extension that will make him the highest paid non-quarterback in the history of the NFL. Watt, who leads the NFL in sacks across the last five seasons, is going to earn $40 million a year as part of a contract that includes 108 million fully guaranteed at signing. He is happy about this. TJ Watt posted this picture on his Instagram shortly after the news was announced. Clearly fired up and ready to get to work after an off season of I guess some degree of uncertainty. TJ Watt uh has missed only 11 games in his eight-year NFL career, guys. But the Steelers are 1 and 10 in those games. So pretty important player. What does this signing mean for this Steelers season, Dan? It puts a riven on a really interesting off season and eventful offseason for the Steelers. We go all the way back. It started with DK Mechaf. Gave up a second round pick and $33 million a year. Very unsteerike. But to me, it was the first round of the NFL draft. Massive inflection point. 21st pick. Couple quarterbacks are on the clock. They don’t take one. They take a good player in Derrick Harmon. That told the world they were all in on Aaron Rogers. Then they trade for a couple aging good players and Jonno Smith and Jaylen Ramsey. To me, this is a ribbon on we are all in to try to win this season. It has been a fascinating off seasonason for the Steelers. They brought in a lot of new guys. They’ve also let go of of of some key guys uh as well. So, when you look at the Steelers, they make the playoffs, they lose in the first round. It’s become a recurring theme. The fans don’t need me to remind them. Uh they thinking about the Super Bowl. Are they Super Bowl contenders? As much as I love the Pittsburgh Steelers and I love the moves that they made this offseason, I do not deem them as Super Bowl contenders right now currently. And part of that Mike T and also Graz is because of their offensive line and how things is predicated how those guys are going to grow this season and also can they rush the football and protect Aaron Rogers. That offensive line has four of their five starters going into year two or year three going into this season. So if that offensive line uh if they’re mauling people, if they’re winning the line of scrimmage, then we’re having a different conversation. But we do not know that yet. You say not Super Bowl contenders, what what how far can they go? What kind of team can this be? I believe they could uh win a game in the playoffs. I believe they could make a playoffs and then win in the first round. I do believe that. And I think more fundamentally, I agree with what you said there, Harry, about the offensive line, but even if Aaron Rogers plays really well, guys, he’s the third best quarterback in this division behind Joe Burrow and Lamar Jackson. And I think a really key player, one that we don’t talk a lot about is Caleb Johnson, their third round running back. Arthur Smith, who’s a very talented offensive play caller. When he’s been most successful, he wants to run the ball. as Harry mentioned, play action and then try to get Aaron Rogers on the move. But here, Caleb Johnson is was a really productive back at Iowa. That will take pressure off of what will be a 42year-old Aaron Rogers. So, I would also say this, Graz, because I know Arthur Smith very, very well. And him trading for Janu Smith at the tight end position. Janu was with him in Tennessee. Janu was with him with the Atlanta Falcons. He is going to utilize him. I played with Janu when I was in Tennessee. He’s not your normal tight end. He has the build of and the athleticism of a bigger, stronger receiver, a guy that can also you could put on the inline of the scrimmage and block in the run game. So, they’re going to utilize him to the best of their abilities. Him and Pat Fry being together, it’s going to be dynamic. Yeah, it’s not hard to figure out what they’re going to want to do, right? They draft the running back in the third round, build it around him. DK Medaf, a wide receiver, doesn’t mind blocking. You talk about the tight ends blocking. They want to be a running team. In terms of the defense, this is something we’ve gotten used to over the years. The Steelers play great defense. They are famous for it. Is this defense which has, you know, a little bit of age on it, bunch of guys over 30 years old, I think the average age might be one of the oldest in the league in terms of defense. Are they still a defense they can count on? 1,000%. Because you look at over the last, especially since Big Banner retired, this defense has really carried the Steelers organization. You look at last year versus the Baltimore Ravens in their first matchup. They won that football game 18 to 16. And it was that defense and three turnovers that they got in that matchup that allowed them to beat the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson and John Haw. Now, it’s not a world that you want to live in where you have to count on your defense every single game to get it done. You want Aaron Rogers in this offense to be hitting on all cylinders. You want DK Medaf to be catching touchdowns, whether it’s a 50-yard post route or a goal line fade or a slant that Aaron Rogers hit him on. You want Caleb Johnson hitting his head on the goal post. But at the same time, the emmo of this football team, what people know the Pittsburgh Steelers from, it’s that defense. Now, when you have them out there entirely too much, that’s when we see issues and problems. And that has been the issue since Big Ben retired. Harry, I got to push back on that a little bit to Dan’s point, which is when you’re building a team, one of the indices you’re looking at is how many players do we have over 30 and going into the season, they have four. Darius Slay, Jaylen Ramsay, Cam Hayward, and the affforementioned TJ Watt. So when you look at this graphic, my question is if the three of us were running the Steelers and we asked ourselves in an honest and sober way, is it reasonable for those four players on the left to all play in 17 games? Age data and stats would tell us that’s a 50/50 proposition at best. That would be my concern about this Steeler defense. And Dan, I know you brought this up, but when you look at both the Bengals certainly and the Ravens and what they could do offensively, this defense has to play up to that level, if not better, to where they’ve been in the past for them to win the division. And that’s my concern is because of the age, can they do it for 17 games against two teams we know can score with quarterbacks that are in their prime? I guess could they do it for 17 games is a good question. But you, you know, you’re talking about the offense coming together. Is it possible that this is the kind of team that the defense has to do it early in the season while the offense gets it figured out? Can you see them ultimately becoming a playoff caliber offense? Yeah, potentially because we all we all know this and Mike, you know this being a general manager, when you get into trading camp, the defense is always ahead of the offense. And the more these guys are together, the more they start and begin to jail, I think you’re going to find that continuity. If the Pittsburgh Steelers can get the run game going, that play action game is going to be serious. Aaron Rogers can still make every single throw on the football field as Mike T is shaking his head. He doesn’t believe in Aaron Rogers, but I do. Mike T. I do this morning. Aaron Rogers, you’re in. I celebrate that. And I really admire that. I really do. But if you’re in, you’re in right now. Not not not any other time. He’s in right now, Mike. He’s in right now. I don’t want you to throw one time at UCLA with DK Metaf and let the world know. I want you in Pittsburgh in April, May, and June. So Dan Graziano doesn’t have to end ask the question while they figure it out. You figure it out in the offseason. So in September, you hit the ground running. Mike, I got Mason Rudolph. I got to ask some questions and and thankfully the Steelers have given us an incredibly eventful off season on which to base these questions. Interesting thing about that though is all the moves they’ve made haven’t really impacted their Super Bowl odds. They were 60 to1 to make the Super Bowl back in early March and now down to just uh 40 to1 which is the 17th best odds in the league. So we will see. Uh with Watt’s extension, the the record for highest paid defensive players, defense pass rushers has gone up significantly. There was 35 million a year just a few months ago. Now TJ Watt up at $41 million a year. This is notable for guys like Trey Hendrickson of the Bengals and Micah Parsons of the Cowboys who are seeking their own new deals and trying to break uh some records. So, we want to focus on uh Micah Parsons and the Cowboys. This is something we’ve talked a fair bit about. He has one year left on his contract. Jerry Jones was talking back in March about the possibility of a deal with Micah Parsons. Still not done. What do you make of that? I think they’re waiting. It’s costing them money again. We’ve talked about this for over a half a decade. You go back to Zeke Elliot. You go back to Dak Prescott, CD Lamp, Micah Parsons is a great player beyond reproach. Now, in fairness, maybe Micah Parsons 108, but Philadelphia in the same division gets players in a room and say, “Hey, let’s figure it out right now.” So, if the three of us were having this conversation a year ago, Nick Bosa, $34 million a year. This offseason, we’ve seen Miles Garrett amongst others. Now, we’re at $41 million a year for the same player guys. That’s 7 million more at least per year. So when you see good players leave like Demarcus Lawrence, Jordan Lewis, amongst others, it’s because by waiting over and over again, and Dallas does a great job of drafting, they are paying an unnecessary premium because they’re letting the market dictate these big pay increases. So I would say this, go back to last season. It’s always some kind of chaos when it comes to contracts with the Dallas Cowboys. Now I will give Jerry credit. He pays his players and as a former player, you love that because you want guys to get their money, but at the same time, it’s two or three guys you could potentially keep on your roster or add to your roster if you do it at a time where you where it’s not urgent. You look at the Philadelphia Eagles, and I’m glad you brought up Howie Roseman and the way they do things. They don’t wait till the last minute to pay their players. They do it beforehand so you don’t have these situations that the Dallas Cowboys find themselves in time and time again. But I’ll say this about Michael Parsons. TJ Watt just got his money. He’s making $41 million a year. The highest paid non-quarterback in the league. Everything is in black and white. The fine print is there. What’s the hold up now? Right. I want to know what’s the hold up now. Right. And Dan, you bring this up all the time. The NFC East hasn’t had a repeat champion in over 20 years. So, we know the margins are incredibly small. And Harry, to your point, Philly is very proactive and aggressive. So, if I’m Dallas and we draft really well, where are the margins that we could take advantage of? Clearly, if you go earlier, you save money. You get to keep more of the good players you’ve drafted. And to me, I don’t understand if I’m in the Cowboy front office and I’m watching a guy like Micah Parsons who we hit on, who is a great player by any measure, what are we waiting for? Why is it in our benefit to wait? Yeah. And to your point, Harry, they do end up paying these guys and they do end up paying them premium prices. We’re talking about CD Lamb, Dak Prescott, uh guys like that. So, they draft well. Yes, that’s correct. But how good does Micah Parsons, how good do Micah Parsons and Dak Prescott have to be when the roster is this topheavy to get the Cowboys where they need to go? So, surprisingly, when you talk about those two guys, they’re going to have to play amazing when it comes to the regular season. If they have opportunity to make the postseason, that’s when they have to step it up another level. But I would also say this, I’m not just going to put it on Michael Parsons and Dak Prescott. That offensive line has to be better. The run game has to be better on offense. stopping the run on defense has to be better. So the young players that they have drafted over the last few years when you look at a ma Mazy Smith, you look at a Marshon Neland, you look at Overshon, those guys really have to step up more for this defense to be able to not be in the bottom half of run defense because if you can’t stop the run and you’re getting demoralized, you have no chance of making the playoffs. You know, you have no chance to contend for a NFL championship. You have two teams in your division, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders, who were second and third in rushing last year in 2024. If you can’t stop the run versus your own two teams in your division, you have no chance. That’s what did the Cowboys in early last year, even before Dak Prescott uh got injured across the NFL yesterday. Mike T. Anthony Richardson of the Colts is believed to be recovered from his recent right shoulder setback just in time for camp. Is this his last shot as a starter in Indie? Not necessarily, but he came out with unbelievable talent. He only started 13 games of Florida Grod. So, this is a really important year in terms of his development. Last year, he struggled in 11 games, only completed 47%. That’s not good enough. Now, we’ve seen guys like Sam Darnold, Gino Smith, amongst others, take some time to develop, so hopefully they can be patient with him, but this is a very important year in his development. They brought in Daniel Jones for competition. How do you see this playing out for Anthony Richardson? Well, number one, I hope Anthony Richardson can get it going because you look at the upside, you look at the athleticism and you think of Cam Newton, but Cam Newton was available. Cam Newton was out there for his football team and it came out a lot of Panthers. But Anthony Richardson, you need to figure this out, how you can be an asset to your football team that went out on a limb and drafted you fourth overall. One of the big things obviously is staying on the field. Sounds like he’s got a shot to be on the field at least when training camp uh opens up. Chargers were on the field at training camp yesterday, Harry, and they learned that Mike Williams has decided to retire. So, one less weapon there on offense for Justin Herbert. Is this year a put up or shut up kind of year for LA’s quarterback? So, when it comes to Justin Herbert, he’s had the individual success. It’s all about now having success in the postseason because when we talk about all these young quarterbacks, well, Justin Herbert has zero playoff wins. He’s 0 and2. In his first playoff game, he had a 27 to nothing lead versus the Jacksonville Jaguars. They lost that and lost that that matchup. But then last year versus the Houston Texans, Mike T, because I know you love Justin Herbert. He threw four interceptions and I picked the Chargers to win that matchup. So, it put up a shut up in the postseason. Mike T, you hear me loud and clear. So, Harry, he was supposed to play defense against Jacksonville as well, huh? Yeah. Uh, what about last year? Mike T, you mysteriously left that one out. Harry’s upset his pick didn’t work out. Mike Tannibal, a huge uh Justin Herbert super fan. What do you think this year means for him? It’s an important year. You know, Justin and I were talking about it last night when I was putting on the bed that he uh he has everything he needs to be successful. Omar and Hampton, guys, who’s a great running back, but he’s also a great receiver. 73 catches at North Carolina. This team has, even without Mike Williams, everything they need for Justin Herbert to be successful. I did not expect uh that to happen in the show today. Finally, Chiefs wide receiver Rashi Rice was sentenced yesterday to 30 days of jail time and 5 years probation for his role in a multi-car crash last year. Uh that means the NFL can now expedite its disciplinary process of Rice likely to receive a multi-game suspension at some point during this upcoming season. So usual disclaimer that this is a serious off-field situation involving people’s lives and we don’t want to make light of that in any way. We are a sports show, however, so we want to talk about the impact it has on the football team that that Rashi Rice plays for. So, if he’s suspended for a chunk of the season, how big of an impact does that have on Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the Chiefs? You know, Graz, I don’t think it’s a big deal. Look, it’s far from ideal, but again, they really did a great job of fortifying this offensive line, drafting Josh Simmons, resigning uh Trey Smith. But here’s where I think they’ll be okay. Guys like Ju Guu Smith Schustster also they drafted Jaylen Royals in the fourth round of Utah State and Smith Shuster again can’t run but he’s a bigger guy. Sky Moore is also on their roster. Noah Greybaby you know the backup tight end Travis Kelce maybe he gets more opportunities but we’re talking about Patrick Mahomes and again over four or five four to six games again not ideal but they can survive it and when Rasheed Rice comes back he to me could be a frontline number one guy because of the way he can run routes and because of his size. So, not ideal, but very survivable. That is the way it looked like it was setting up last year at the start of the season before he got injured. What do you think of this? So, I would say this, it just delays the process. And a lot of people are trying to figure out what what process are you talking about, Harry? The process of transitioning from Travis Kelce being your number one wide receiver to someone else taking those those rings or number one target. And Rasheed Rice last year in the first three games, he led the NFL in receptions. So, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not 2024. Rasheed Rice went down in game four and couldn’t play the rest of the year, but it’s going to delay the process of of Patrick Mahomes getting his number one target in which he wants Rasheed Rice to be. It’s going to delay that process. And now Travis Kelce and we heard Brett Vch not too long ago talk about, hey, he’s getting older. He has his moments. You want to transition out of him being the number one target and have someone else take on that onus and Rashid Rice was the guy that I had in mind. It’s just delays everything in my opinion. So, this is this is the Chiefs, right? And we talk about I mean, I don’t think we’ve mentioned Hollywood Brown, who was hurt for most of last year. He’s back healthy. Uh they they address the offensive line, nine straight division titles. Do you think that there’s enough weakness there that somebody can catch him? For the very first time since Patrick Mahomes has has become the starter for the Kansas City Chiefs, they will not win the AFC West. Oh, I am going with the Denver Broncos because how fantastic they were on defense a season ago, but how they upgraded this season as well. Adding a linebacker and Dre Green Law, adding Huong at the safety position. Their first round pick was Johnny Baron from Texas. But then when you look at the offensive side of the ball, I look at a guy in Bo Knicks who had the ability to grasp a Shawn Payeyton offense and run it to perfection in his rookie season. Well, the two glaring hoes for Denver last season was the tight end position and the running back position. They drafted RJ Harvey. They also acquired JK Dobbins and they got Evan Ingram at the tight end position. I’m looking for the Denver Broncos to win this division. Yeah, spicy take. It is. And it’s an inaccurate one at that. Look, I I believe in Denver and Shawn Payeyton, Vance Joseph, amongst others. They they will make the playoffs, but and Dan, we’ve talked about this. The 2025 Kansas City Chiefs would beat the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs in my opinion pretty handily with Patrick Mahomes and got to the Super Bowl. They are demonstrabably better. I mean, if they didn’t have Superman, that was a team that probably won seven games last year with that offensive line. Now that they have a to me a very good offensive line, look out. And again, we don’t even talk about Xavier Worthy and his explosiveness like and how he got better as the season went along. Here’s the thing, though. Just like the Kansas City Chiefs have gotten better, so have the Denver Broncos, right? So have the Los Angeles Chargers. So have the Las Vegas Raiders. Everyone else in that division has gotten better as well, too. Looks tough. They did finish five games ahead of the Broncos last year, even though they gave him the last game. So, Broncos have a little work to do, but I like I definitely like the spicy take from Harry on July 18th. This guy even lets me begin to reach for my wallet at dinner. Uh dot dot dot. So, uh obviously those two uh very close and JJ very supportive of his brother. In honor of TJ Watt’s huge deal, we are debuting a new segment called Blank Check. Uh you’ll get it in a second. Ryan Clark, our uh our resident Steeler joining us now. Ryan, the Steelers extending TJ Watt means blank. It just means they it means they did the right thing. This doesn’t necessarily change their team. We expected TJ Watt to be on the field. When you look at all the things that TJ Watt leads the league in since 2017, it shows what sort of impact player he’s been. And if coach Tomlin knew he’d be this good of a player, they would have tried to move up and draft him first overall when they picked him. But now it’s going to be about how you fix those pieces on the back end with Thornhill and Slay and adding Jaylen Ramsay. Can Payton Wilson become an impact starting linebacker, not just a dime or a third down guy? And then what do you do offensively? Omar Khan, the general manager, has put his money where his mouth and his brain is, but will that produce wins on the field and get this team past the first the first week of the playoffs? We still don’t know. Yeah, we were talking a little bit earlier about about the Steelers and the idea that we take their defense being good for granted, like it’s always been since the 1970s, right? Uh and you obviously were a big part of that. um uh much later than the 70s. Uh but um the uh is the defense in Pittsburgh still the kind of defense RC that can carry this team if the offense needs a little time to get itself together? No, I don’t think it’s that sort of defense, but it’s a defense that can win games. When you think about carrying a team, I think we’re past the days of seeing the 2002 Bucks or I mean or the 2000 Bucks or the 2002 Ravens. like you’re not going to see any of those teams anymore. It’s going to be about how do you make plays in important moments and make those impact plays and they have those guys in TJ Watt and Jaylen Ramsey on the outside, Alex Highmith, Cam Hayward at the defensive tackle position and defensive end and so they can make those plays, but I expect this offense to play well. I expect Aaron Rogers to acclimate himself not only into this locker room but into this offense with Arthur Smith and give them a much better passing game than they had last year. and Arthur Smith getting another year with the run. Met Caleb Johnson this weekend from Iowa. I think that those guys have an opportunity to be good on offense, but the defense can carry them early by making plays at important moments and getting the ball back to Aaron Rogers and his offense. One of their big playmakers on defense the last few years has been Minka Fitzpatrick. He’s not there anymore. He goes to Miami in the trade that brings Jaylen Ramsay to Pittsburgh. Do you think that’s a good move for the Steelers? I really do because now you’re getting a player that can go outside and play corner. He can play nickel at that start position and he can go back and play safety. He can play multiplesuh positions on your defense and you can utilize him in a lot of different ways. So I think this is an upgrade for the Pittsburgh Steelers and a glaring need that they needed so far on their defense in my opinion. What do you think? Yeah, again as we discussed earlier, Jaylen Ramsey is a very good player. It’s just getting those four guys who are 30 or older through the regular season. And again, that’s just a heavy lift based on, you know, where some of these guys have been from a durability standpoint. But again, Darius Slay comes on over, Jaylen Ramsey comes over. On paper, this looks really good. Hopefully, it’s sustainable for 17 games. You agree, RC? Do you like that that change that they made in in the secondary? Ma was a pretty important player for them for a long time. Mika was an extremely important player, but I think Ma and them defensively were in a place where they couldn’t put Ma in spots to make those impact plays like we’d seen in years before when he was having those allpro numbers. And here’s just something toward what Harry said about Jaylen Ramsay’s versatility. I was at Elite Week for Athletes First. David Mulligetta, his agent, a shareholder there. And I was training the safeties. After he worked out with the quarterbacks, he runs over to me. He’s like, “RC, I need to get some safety reps. I need to get some of those drills in.” And so, I think Jaylen Ramsay is expected to be used as a Swiss Army knife for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So, I think that’s something we could be looking at in training camp to see exactly where he fits. We obviously know Darius Sllay is a starting corner caliber player. Joey Porter Jr. is the future for them at corner. And so, I think Jaylen Ramsey will be used all over the field for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. And that does sound like uh the plan they had in mind when they got him. So, flipping it back to the offense, RC seems to have some confidence about how it’s going to play. You have DK Medaf in there as a number one receiver, maybe a Calvin Austin as a number two, a rookie running back. The line is young. Like, do do you think this is going to be an offense that needs time to to sort of get get itself together? Here’s my thing. I I I don’t believe they have time. Ah, right. Because you look at the schedule early on and they can really be four and one or five and 0 within their first five games. So, you need those guys to be hitting on all cylinders early on from game one because we do know if you start behind the eightball in the AFC North, then you’re not going to be in contention for that division or have a playoff spot because of the entire conference of the AFC. It can happen, but a lot has to happen fast. So, for example, Caleb Johnson, you know, when you have a rookie running back, big concern is pass protection. You have a legend in Aaron Rogers. You’re not going to put him out there unless you know airtight he has all the protections down pat. So, can it happen? Yeah. Yes, it can. But again, we talked earlier about sort of like the chemistry between Aaron Rogers and DK Metaf. They need so many reps. They are so far behind what Lamar Jackson has with his skill group and obviously what Joe Burrow has with his group. Is it impossible? No. But it is really, really difficult because they are so far behind from an experienced uh standpoint. RC, final word on this. What’s the biggest thing you’re looking out for as the Steelers head to camp? The biggest thing I’m looking out for is 12 and 13 personnel. Harry knows this. Mike knows this. That’s one back, two tight ends, three tight ends. You go and you add John Smith who had a career year with the Miami Dolphins. Pat Frier moved this as an act absolute dog. And Darnell Washington is a man that’s built out of the side of a mountain. And we can’t forget about how much Jaylen Warren has meant to this team at the running back position. I know they’re going to need some time to get that chemistry. And I agree with Harry. They’re not going to have a long time to get that when we talk about the season. But there are so many pieces on this offense where Arthur Smith can do something a little different than what we’ve seen in the past from him. And so that’s going to mean Aaron Rogers understanding I have to do something a little different than what I’ve did for years and what I’ve done. [Music]

On Get Up, Harry Douglas, Mike Tannenbaum and Ryan Clark react to T.J. Watt and the Pittsburgh Steelers agreeing to a historic 3-year/$123M contract extension discuss the latest news on Kansas City Chiefs’ Rasheed Rice and more.

0:00 T.J. Watt becomes highest-paid non-QB
1:45 Are the Steelers Super Bowl contenders?
6:20 What has to happen for the Steelers to win the AFC North?
7:45 Has Jerry Jones made a mistake not extending Micah Parsons?
11:40 Run The Hurry Up
18:17 Blank Check
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