We are a little less than three weeks away from the start of the 2025 NFL year and once it commences, the Pittsburgh Steelers, like most teams, should be highly active. Along with free agency and draft decisions the team makes, it will be interesting to see what ultimately transpires with OLB T.J. Watt as it relates to a contract extension. Assuming the Steelers indeed intend to sign Watt to an extension, as Art Rooney II indicated, the timing in which it is completed could save them quite a bit of cash.
Watt is scheduled to earn $21.05 million in 2025 and, at the time of this post, is fourth among the NFL’s highest-paid edge rushers. He’s behind Nick Bosa ($34M) of San Francisco 49ers, Josh Hines-Allen ($28.25M) of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Brian Burns ($28.2M) of the New York Giants in APY at $28,002,750.
While Watt is fourth on the list of highest-paid NFL edge rushers, the top spot could wind up being overtaken by Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns, Micah Parsons of the Dallas Cowboys, or even Trey Hendrickson of the Cincinnati Bengals during the offseason. At the very least, it’s reasonable to think that at least one of those three will exceed Bosa’s APY by the start of the 2025 regular season, if not sooner than that.
Garrett could very well end up being the first player to top Bosa, especially if the Browns trade him prior to the 2025 NFL Draft. At the very least, the Browns will need to sign Garrett to a lucrative contract extension during the offseason if they decide against trading him. The timing of contract extensions for both Parsons and Hendrickson are much tougher to predict. Even so, both players figure to end up with APYs greater than what Watt’s is if they indeed get new deals.
Assuming Watt and the Steelers agree to a contract extension, it’s reasonable to think he will exit such a signing as the NFL’s highest-paid edge rusher, a distinction he held right after signing his current deal in September 2021. It’s also reasonable to expect that Watt will demand fully guaranteed money beyond the 2025 season before agreeing to an extension.
Watt’s current contract includes $80 million fully guaranteed, which was the first three years of the deal, or the first two new years if you will. The Steelers only likely did that because they made Watt the highest-paid NFL edge rusher at the time, their new precedent for guaranteed money past Year 1. In total, $35 million of that $80 million in fully guaranteed money was given to Watt in the form of a 2021 signing bonus. Another $1 million of that $80 million was part of Watt’s 2021 base salary.
Assuming the Steelers are able to sign Watt to a contract extension before any other player tops Bosa’s APY, the amount of such an APY could wind up being as low as $35 million. Should, however, the Steelers wait until after Garrett, Parsons or even Hendrickson sign contract extensions, it might take an APY of $40 million, or slightly more, to make Watt the league’s highest-paid edge rusher and maintain the team’s guaranteed precedent.
In short, the Steelers will probably save a lot of cash should they get Watt signed to an extension sooner rather than later and especially if he’s going to be the NFL’s highest-paid edge rusher, if only for a little while.
The Steelers are in a great position to extend Watt early this offseason from both a salary cap and cash-spending perspective since they are not crunched at all in either of those two areas. In fact, a Watt contract extension would likely result in his 2025 salary cap charge of $30,418,695 decreasing quite a bit, depending on the amount of the signing bonus. As far as the cash outlay for Watt in 2025, that could come in around $50 million, assuming he signs an extension before another player I have mentioned.
Remember, Watt is already on the 2025 books for a $21.050 million cash total. Giving him a signing bonus and new base salary in 2025 figures to require around another $28 million or so in additional cash above what he is set to earn. The Steelers are expected to spend at least $100 million more in new cash in 2025 than they have on the books for their current Rule of 51, so throwing around a quarter of that amount in Watt’s direction shouldn’t be a problem.
In closing, there’s no real reason the Steelers should wait most of the summer before signing Watt to a contract extension. Other than Watt and his representatives being very unreasonable when it comes to a new APY and fully guaranteed money, a deal should be able to get struck in the next several weeks if the Steelers want to beat all other edge rushers to the highest-paid altar. Especially Garrett, whom the Browns might ultimately need to significantly overpay to keep him from demanding to be traded.
