{"id":626712,"date":"2026-05-06T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626712\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T11:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:07:12","slug":"james-harrison-predicts-when-steelers-will-move-on-from-t-j-watt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626712\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harrison Predicts When Steelers Will Move On From T.J. Watt"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a long list of legendary defensive players in their history. However, no one has recorded more sacks with the team than T.J. Watt. He quickly developed into one of the best defensive players in the league, including winning the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2021. Unfortunately, Watt hasn\u2019t been as dominant in recent years. That\u2019s led to some people wondering<\/a> if Pittsburgh will move on from him. James Harrison doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s coming anytime soon, but he sees when a split could come between the Steelers and Watt.<\/p>\n

\u201cT.J. has a lot of guaranteed money left on his contract,\u201d Harrison said Tuesday on his Deebo and Joe podcast.<\/a> \u201cT.J. has [2026] and [2027]. I don\u2019t see him going anywhere unless they could potentially get something for him in a trade because I don\u2019t see anybody taking a $42 million cap hit in each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, [2026] and [2027] is $42 million each, and that is fully guaranteed. Then, [2028], it\u2019s not guaranteed, but he has a roster bonus that is due of $15 million on the third day of the new league year. I hate to say it, in all reality, I would see them releasing him in [2028], along with him being 34 at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison is correct that Watt\u2019s contract would make him tough to move. He signed it last offseason, and it made him the league\u2019s highest-paid pass rusher at the time. While it was the right decision at the time, Watt only recorded seven sacks last season.<\/p>\n

Some of that can be blamed on Watt\u2019s freak-accident injury. However, he wasn\u2019t as disruptive in 2024, either, only having 11.5 sacks. By no means has Watt been a bad player as he\u2019s still impacted the game in other ways. Still, he hasn\u2019t been the same level of player that he was a few years prior.<\/p>\n

That makes this a big year for Watt. He could prove all of his doubters wrong and show that he has plenty of gas left in the tank. Yes, he turns 32 in October, but plenty of pass rushers have aged gracefully in the past.<\/p>\n

Also, the Steelers have a new defensive coordinator in Patrick Graham.<\/a> Perhaps he\u2019ll use Watt in more creative ways. Offenses have limited the Steelers pass rusher in part because he almost exclusively plays on one side of the defense. It\u2019s been easier to throw schematics at Watt.<\/p>\n

However, if Watt shows more evidence of declining, he might not finish out his current contract in Pittsburgh. The final year of his deal is 2028, and that\u2019s likely the earliest that the Steelers can move on from him.<\/p>\n

While Watt seems like someone who should be a Steeler for life, it\u2019s a new era in Pittsburgh with Mike Tomlin gone. The new regime isn\u2019t as attached to Watt.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of time between now and then, though. Cam Heyward has continued to defy Father Time. Maybe Watt can do something similar.<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have a long list of legendary defensive players in their history. However, no one has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[271155,106663,349,1321,99,3793],"class_list":["post-626712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-deebo-and-joe","tag-james-harrison","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-sports","tag-t-j-watt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}