{"id":165148,"date":"2025-06-28T11:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T11:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/165148\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T11:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T11:55:10","slug":"pelissero-believes-steelers-watt-will-reach-extension-before-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/165148\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelissero Believes Steelers, Watt Will Reach Extension Before Training Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers are slowly working their way through their offseason list of priorities. They signed QB Aaron Rodgers to be their starting quarterback for 2025. They\u2019ve addressed the defensive line, largely through the draft. But what about OLB T.J. Watt?<\/p>\n

Watt has been one of the most impactful defenders for the Steelers and league-wide since the Steelers drafted him 30th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft. He has 108 sacks in 121 career games, along with another 126 career tackles for a loss. He also has hauled in seven interceptions while forcing 33 fumbles (and recovering 12 fumbles as well). He\u2019s an impact player in every sense of the word, failing to hit double-digit sacks only twice in eight years.<\/p>\n

But T.J. Watt is entering the final year of his current deal. And he skipped both the voluntary OTAs and mandatory minicamp this offseason. He\u2019s serious about getting a new deal in Pittsburgh. Will that happen? And if so, when?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems there\u2019s nothing done at this point,\u201d insider Tom Pelissero said Friday on the Rich Eisen Show<\/a>. \u201cBut it seems like, given where these teams are, that they\u2019re going to find a way to do something prior to the start of training camp\u2026 I\u2019m not holding my breath for that to get done much before; they\u2019re one of the last teams to report, they report on July 23rd to Latrobe. I\u2019m not holding my breath for that to get done substantially before that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelissero thinks a deal will get done, which makes sense. The Steelers want T.J. Watt in Pittsburgh. And by all accounts, Watt wants to stay. So what\u2019s the holdup? T.J. Watt is going to go down as one of the best players to suit up for the Steelers. He\u2019s a four-time First-Team All-Pro. He was the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year. This should be an easy decision for the Steelers, right?<\/p>\n

Insider James Palmer thinks the holdup could be partly caused by Watt\u2019s injury history and his age<\/a>. Watt has played in all 17 regular-season games the last two years. But he missed seven games in 2022. He also missed the Steelers\u2019 2023 playoff game against the Buffalo Bills after suffering an injury in the final game of the year. Watt is also turning 31 years old in October.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the fact that Cleveland Browns DE Myles Garrett signed a market-resetting contract extension this offseason. Do you give T.J. Watt a big extension with a lot of guaranteed money? Or are you going to try to balance long-term investment with keeping your star pass rusher in the fold?<\/p>\n

Either way, Pelissero thinks the Steelers and T.J. Watt could come to an agreement prior to training camp. But he\u2019s not locking it in just yet. After all, negotiations like this can become messy. Even for a venerable team like the Steelers and a franchise icon like Watt.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers are slowly working their way through their offseason list of priorities. They signed QB Aaron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2360,426,5226,20202,3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-165148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","13":"tag-steelers","14":"tag-t-j-watt","15":"tag-the-rich-eisen-show","16":"tag-tom-pelissero"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114760864744143175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}