JJ Watt didn't speak directly about TJ Watt's situation, but he thinks that teams need to playing more fair with their players.
TJ Watt has spent his entire career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he is one of the best defensive players in the league. However, there is some drama surrounding his current situation as Watt skipped OTAs because of ongoing contract negotiations. Watt believes that he should be earning more money, and he is holding out for that to happen.
TJ Watt's brother, JJ Watt, recently made an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. He didn't directly talk about his brother's contract situation, but he did reveal a couple of reasons why teams should be paying their players early on.
“I’ve long been a big believer that ownership and front offices obviously treat this like a business but they do not like it when the players flip the script on them and treat it like a business back,” JJ Watt said. “Taking care of your guys earlier does a few things for you, number one it gets them locked in at a lower price in the long run. I mean you look at what prices are doing every single year, you get them locked in at a lower price.”
JJ also brought up the current situation between Trey Hendrickson and the Cincinnati Bengals. Even if a team does end up giving in, there can still be ill feelings in the end.
“Number two you are keeping them happy, because even now let’s look at Trey Hendrickson’s situation, let’s say they pay him,” JJ continued. “Now there’s all this resentment, there is all this animosity, and yeah, $40 million or whatever it is cures a whole lot of that, and he’s going to act like everything is great and everything is wonderful, but you just went through a whole bunch of time where there was some disrespect where there’s some hurt feelings.”
TJ Watt has been with the Steelers for eight seasons now. He has had monster seasons in the past as he racked up 22.5 sacks in 2021, and he finished with 11.5 this past season. Watt has led the NFL in sacks three different times as he finished with 15 in 2020, 19 in 2023 and then his 22.5 in 2021 was first as well.
So far, TJ has won Defensive Player of the Year once, and he is a four-time First Team All-Pro. All in all, he has had an incredibly impressive career, and he wants his contract to reflect that. TJ Watt is one of the best players in the NFL, and he should be paid like one of the best players in the NFL.
