As camp opens, Watt contract extension looms taken on the South Side (Steelers)

KARL ROSER / STEELERS

T.J. Watt

The Steelers reported to the UPMC-Rooney Sports Complex on Wednesday to open their 2021 training camp. Thursday, they'll hold their first practice.

The team also will begin in earnest attempts to sign All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt to a long-term extension.

The 49ers jumped into the extension market Wednesday, signing All-Pro inside linebacker Fred Warner to a five-year extension worth $95 million that included $40.5 million in guaranteed money. That made Warner the league's highest-paid off-ball linebacker.

Could Watt set a new market for outside linebackers? It certainly seems like that would be the case. After all, he led the NFL in sacks in 2020 with 15, finishing second to Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald in the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award voting. He finished third in that voting in 2019.

Watt, a first-round draft pick in 2017, is currently slated to play out his rookie deal on a fifth-year option cost of $10.089 million. That's a big raise from the $1.727 million in base salary he earned in 2020. And you can expect Watt will want another big raise to sign a new deal.

Considering he's made $9.258 million in his first four seasons, he's been a ridiculous bargain. But the bill is coming due on a player who just turned 26.

Currently, the Broncos' Von Miller has the highest salary cap hit among outside linebackers for this season at $22.225 million, while the Bears' Khalil Mack has the highest average salary per year at the position at $23.5 million per year.

But that's only part of the equation. In recent years, the terminology and separation between outside linebackers -- particularly in a 3-4 defense -- and defensive ends has become more blurred than ever before. Now, they're all simply considered edge rushers, with little to distinguish between a player such as Watt and the Browns' Myles Garrett or Chargers' Joey Bosa.

It led to former Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree filing a grievance with the league last year when he was given the franchise tag value for an outside linebacker rather than a defensive end, which was about $2 million higher. Dupree didn't win that grievance, but it wouldn't be a stretch for Watt to claim the same thing in negotiations with the Steelers.

And Garrett and Bosa are the two highest-paid defenders in terms of contract average in the NFL. Garrett's contract, signed last season, averages $25 million per year, while Bosa is at $27.5 million.

The Chiefs' Frank Clark has the highest cap hit of any defensive player in the league this season at $25.8 million, while DeMarcus Lawrence of the Cowboys is second at $25 million.

What's the difference? Clark and Lawrence are later into their deals, meaning they're deeper into their deals. Clark is in the third year of his five-year deal with the Chiefs. His cap hit jumped from $19.3 million last season to its current level. Likewise, Lawrence is in the third season of his five-year deal and sees his cap hit jump massively from $9.9 million last year to the massive hit this year.

At some point, the bill always comes due.

But Dallas' contract with Lawrence could be a blueprint for the Steelers with Watt.

Lawrence's total deal was for $105 million over five years. That came after he played the 2018 season on the franchise tag at a cost of $17.143 million. Yet his cap hit for 2019 was just $11.1 million before dropping in 2020.

However, he still got his money in those two years, raking in over $31 million in new money in 2019, including $25 million in signing bonus and $4.6 million in roster bonus, and $16.9 million in new money in 2020 after Dallas restructured his contract to create some salary cap space. All told, Lawrence has been paid more than $47 million over the past two seasons, with only about $20 million total of that counting against the salary cap over those two seasons.

His cap hits go up to more than $25 million each season through 2023, but the salary cap is expected to rise significantly in future seasons, so the Cowboys should be capable of carrying that hit.

Now, Watt will likely want more than the $21 million and might want Bosa-Garrett money, but thats doable, too. Bosa's cap hit in 2020 was $15 million before jumping to $20.75 million this season.

Garrett's hit is even less than that, coming in at $10.1 million last season and $9.3 million this year. Like Bosa's deal, it jumps considerably after that, but the initial sticker shock isn't great the first couple of years.

And for a team such as the Steelers, who must also be concerned with signing other defensive stalwarts such as Minkah Fitzpatrick after this season, that's a big deal.

The deal with Watt will get done. The Steelers have a little over a month before the start of the regular season -- when they close down negotiations until the end of the season -- to get something done. And if things don't work out, they still have the franchise tag remaining to use.

Watt will become the highest-paid defensive player in Steelers' history. But he deserves that kind of deal.

Loading...
Loading...