Just a thought ! Trade TJ Watt this offseason.

I wouldn't next year. He will be making 10 million in his 5th year option. Ben will most likely still be here. That said, in year 6 you would have the option to franchise him. By then Ben may be moving on or come year 7 when Ben does move on and Highsmith should be well entrenched you could give it a thought.

 

I'd trade him for a franchise QB in an instant; Justin Herbert types. But no way that's happening.

 

Indeed - precisely my point. And the Bell trade is going over like a floater in a punch bowl with the few fans who remain. Guess the Buccos are still reeling from the Jason Kendall contract and are shy to re-sign anyone for over $1 million at a time.

 

ban this account. WTF

 

I've come to understand that in my life time I will never see the Pirates play in a world series again. Not with the carpetbagger owner we have now. Sad but I guess I have no input into that. Sorry I didn't get your point about the trade

 

I think he would hold out if they don’t pay him this off season, he has more than earned it. The last thing anybody wants is for it to get ugly.

Most of the top performers in his draft class have already been paid, and TJ has arguably outperformed them all bar Mahomes and Watson. It’s time for the Steelers to pay up, regardless of cap pressure they have to find a way.

 

When they salary share their respective pays is when i consider them individual stocks . For now I am going to the digital tokenization of players contracts.

 

Watt is a generational player like Polamalu, Woodson and Harrison (sorry SDOT).

 

Have they paid any other player before the 5th year option was up? He signed the contract being a first round pick. He didn't make peanuts doing so knowing the 5th year option was part of the deal. Why would the steelers pay twice as much as they have to and lose other players in the process?

 

They paid Heyward and Decastro after year 4 iirc. I’m sure they’d have paid Shazier too but he didn’t get that far unfortunately. I don’t think anybody else warranted it since the fifth year option came in. Jarvis Jones, Bud Dupree, Artie Burns had not done enough by year four to earn a second contract as we all know.

Its not a case of paying him twice as much, they can give him his new contract and signing bonus but let the bigger money kick in from 2022. It’s about giving him the security he has earned. If they manage it correctly there should be minimal collateral damage. When you decide to pay a franchise player you are always going to lose guys elsewhere eventually.

 

There was one that was around 30

 

What does the D stand for? I can guess...

8====D

 

Where's the green font?

 

If you pay a player $20M for his sack total, then the payer is a FOOL. You pay $20M for a superior defensive player who impacts a high percentage of the team's defensive plays. A consistent disruptor of the opponent's offense is paid well, not a sack artist. This is what TJ Watt is, a disruptor. Without Watt's constant pressure on both pass and run snaps the Steeler's defense would be mediocre. There is a reason back in the day sacks totals were not kept. They represent less than 2% of all the snaps. Sacks are a showtime statistic for television.

TJ Watt
Yr......# Snaps Sack Ct % of Sanps
2017 ......751...........7.0..........0.93%
2018 ......902.........13.0..........1.44%
2019 ......935.........14.5..........1.55%
2020 ......855.........15.0..........1.75%
........... 3443........49.5......... 1.44%

 

I don't see much happening until Ben is off the books. Pouncey as well. Maybe even DD. Haden. We will have tj and minka to deal with at that time. That's 40-50 million dollars or more to play with.

 

I’ll be stunned if they dont extend him this off season, TJ seems like a very pragmatic and reasonable guy but if they don’t pay him this year he should hold out. There are ways to do it without impacting the cap in 2021 and I expect that’s how it will play out. We will see.

They’ll have the same issue with Minkah next off season, he just made his second straight All Pro first team as it happens.

 

you'd have to go back to the "fire Coach Cowher!" days to top that.

 

they will be paying him over 10 million dollars. If he wants to leave that on the table that's fine but they will hold the same card a year later too. I don't see him holding out. If it was him being franchised that would be different.

 

We can agree to disagree. If he wins DPOY (or tbh even if he doesn’t) I think at this point you have to pay him or risk damaging the relationship between team and player.

Like I said, you can do it without crippling yourself in 2021. Why hold back? He is the franchise player at this point, you’ll be doing it the following off season anyway, just give him what he has earned imo. He has played for peanuts for four years, this day was always coming.

 

Hopefully they can use Derek's money as a reduction in figuring TJ's new contract.

TJs +DJs money should equal the total amount that the Steelers Front office is offering TJ Watt for a new contract!

 

Comparing TJ Watt to Josh Bell is crazy. Bell had one good half season and has been average at best for the Pirates. TJ Watt is an All Pro and MVP candidate.

 

He's already going from 1.7 mil. to over 10 which will make him the highest paid guy on the team. I'm not sure how much holding back there is.

 

Trade him for a draft pick and then hope like hell that draft pick turns into half the player watt is? Is that the plan?

You don't trade away young players like Watt. You build around them.