The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the middle of a transformative time as a franchise as they are currently searching for the team's next head coach after Mike Tomlin stepped down following the 2025 season. Whoever gets that job and takes the reigns of the team is going to have a lot of work to do as Pittsburgh's roster is made up of a lot of aging stars that are on what could be considered "bad" contracts. This makes it difficult to build out the rest of a roster, and the Steelers are in that tough situation going into the 2026 season.
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Steelers GM Omar Khan (left) with Team President and Owner Art Rooney II (right) ahead of a road game in Baltimore during the 2025 season.
There has been a lot of focus on the search for Pittsburgh's next head coach since the 2026 offseason began, and that should be the case considering that the Steelers have not gone through this process in nearly two decades. The speculation from fans about the next coaching staff has kind of overshadowed some major roster questions that will need to be addressed. One of those being the status of outside linebacker TJ Watt, who signed a lucrative extension during the 2025 offseason. Some fans want him traded, but according to team insider Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that is not going to be easy to do.
"I think the time to trade Watt was last year, before the extension, back when they could have received at least a No. 1 pick for him," Dulac wrote. "That time might have passed, especially because the contractual situation is heavy for a player whose sack total has declined each season, for whatever reason."
Watt signed a three-year, $123 million contract with Pittsburgh during the 2025 offseason. $108 million on the deal was guaranteed, which puts his cap hit at over $40 million per year over the next three seasons. The Steelers could potentially get out of the deal during the 2028 offseason for a dead cap charge of just $10 million.
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Steelers' TJ Watt runs with the ball after recording an interception during Pittsburgh's game in Dublin during the 2025 season.
The fan base has been critical of Watt as his production has seemingly dipped. He only has 18.5 sacks over the last two seasons combined, which is low for him considering how he was earlier in his career. The star is now 31 years old, so a drop off in production is expected, but it just seems like it happened extremely fast.
A large sect of the fan base in Pittsburgh wanted to trade Watt following the 2024 season. He did not record a sack in the team's last four games after starting the year off strong, and a trade made sense as he was entering the final year of his deal. The Steelers could've either extended him or traded him, and the organization opted to keep him in Pittsburgh.
Watt's new contract is basically immovable. No other organization would likely bring that on via trade after watching the outside linebacker put up just seven sacks in 2025. Trading him does not seem to be an option anymore, as it is something the organization could have done a year ago to bring in some additional draft capital.
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Steelers superstar edge rusher TJ Watt lets out a thunderous roar after delivering a game-changing play against the Cleveland Browns, igniting the crowd and fueling Pittsburgh’s defensive momentum.
Steelers' TJ Watt Could Still Be Worth His Lucrative Extension
Watt might not have put up the sack numbers that fans have grown accustomed to during the 2025 season, but he still made an impact. It was very obvious that opposing offenses were still hesitant to run the ball to his side of the formation, and he also attracted extra blockers on nearly every pass rush. The Pro Bowler also recorded two interceptions, forced three fumbles, and recovered two fumbles. He can still turn the ball over like he always has, but if the sack numbers are a large concern, maybe the franchise should consider restructuring Watt's deal to lower his cap hit.
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