Unpopular Opinion: The Steelers trading T.J. Watt is ridiculous… unless he asks for it
When the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the dreaded long offseason, there are plenty of ideas to debate. As part of the triumphant trio on the Steelers Preview podcast, I’ve been known to often give a “Dave answer“ to various things as I often like to argue both sides of an issue. With this in mind, a new weekly segment has been born… Unpopular opinion.
There are plenty of arguments both for and against the Pittsburgh Steelers that might not go along with the majority of fans. Oftentimes I believe in these arguments, while other times I simply like to pose a counter argument for ones that are taking it too much to the extreme. For this reason, I’m going to offer some points about the Pittsburgh Steelers that go against the general fan narrative, or at least how I have heard things.
Next up is the idea of the Steelers trading away their best player…
The Steelers trading T.J. Watt is ridiculous… unless he asks for it
I admit I’m not sure how widespread the opinion of trading T.J. Watt before the 2025 season actually is in Steelers’ Nation, but I’ve seen it more than I would like. So whether or not this is truly unpopular I cannot say for sure. But the idea of trading T.J. Watt is ridiculous.
The biggest reason the Steelers should not and will not trade T.J. Watt is because this is not how this franchise operates. They have established themselves since the 1970s under Dan Rooney as one of the premier franchises in the NFL. They take care of their players. They do things the right way. It’s what they do. The Steelers aren’t going to trade away their best player on the team extremely early in the negotiating process simply because he did not come to three practices in shorts, albeit classified as mandatory, in the middle of June.
Talk about an over-reaction.
For some reason fans of the Steelers are getting completely obsessed with the draft picks they are compiling in 2026. The Steelers are already projected to have 12 selections if they get all four compensatory draft picks, which is shaping up that they definitely should. Yet is it enough just to have a chance at drafting the next quarterback?
Trading T.J. Watt when the Steelers have already positioned themselves pretty good in that department just to try to make it a little bit better is very dangerous. Who is to say whatever quarterback the Steelers were to take in 2026 would be the answer? Then the Steelers still have no quarterback and lost arguably the best defender in the NFL.
There are only a few reasons why the Steelers would trade one of their players:
- They weren’t going to make the team or start (typically done right before the season begin begins)
- They are a problem in the locker room
- The player asked for it
This is why there’s a second part to this unpopular opinion. If T.J. Watt were to be foolish enough to ask to be traded, then the Steelers are going to do it. How quickly did the Steelers trade Kenny Pickett once he asked to be traded during the 2024 offseason? If a player on the Steelers asked to not be a part of the organization anymore, they’re going to comply and comply quickly in most cases.
But T.J. Watt and his representatives are smarter than this, and definitely smarter than Myles Garrett. Then again, Myles Garrett was dealing with a joke of an organization in which he could shoot his mouth off in the way that he did and they would still choose to break the bank for him. If T.J. Watt were to say those kind of things about the Steelers, he would not be wearing black and gold in 2025.
But I don’t believe T.J. Watt would say those type of things. He’s in a much different place with a high-class organization. This is just the beginning of the negotiation period. It is not worth the fans and media flipping out over what’s going on.
The Steelers don’t care about appeasing the fans or the media when it comes to a contract negotiation.
T.J. Watt does not care about appeasing the fans or the media when it comes to a contract negotiation.
You have got to remember these things and not flip out about them. It is way too early to be that concerned.
When I will start to be worried about if T.J. Watt will be a part of the 2025 Steelers is only going to happen if Watt is foolish enough to ask for a trade, or we hit the month of September. There’s still a lot of time.
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What/whom could Pgh reasonably obtain in a trade for T.J., at present?
A fair question. Return has to be considered.
The idea of trading Watt is not a punitive act meant as retribution for his audacity to want a new contract, it’s simply an option on the table. It’s business, and the Steelers will do what’s right for the franchise regardless of the player.
To me he doesn’t really have as much leverage as he may think. They could keep control of him for the next three years and let him walk for much cheaper than signing him to a “larger than Garrett’s deal” contract.
Is a 161 million fully guaranteed contract for a guy on the wrong side of 30 better for the long term than moving him with his blessing now? I think this is a seriously worthwhile conversation.
The other side of the coin is they won’t have a premiere QB contract before Watt is likely retired, so why not sign him? I’m not sure where I fall here, and without knowing the compensation for a trade I can’t say, but I would trade him in the blink of an eye if the deal is right.
If it’s good business to trade players away like this, the Steelers should trade Cam Heyward right now as they are several years behind on this. Chris Boswell would be an even better candidate. Steelers definitely should’ve traded away Troy Polamalu once he hit 30. That’s the price of doing business.
I miss the sarcasm font.
Sarcasm font? Really?
“Talk about an over-reaction.” – your words. Now YOU are the one over-reacting. Read my statement. Nowhere did I write “it’s good business to trade players away like this…” you inferred it. “it’s simply an option on the table. It’s business, and the Steelers will do what’s right for the franchise regardless of the player.” You are reacting like I’m suggesting they go into the locker room and pick a player and go see if they can trade them. You are also suggesting that they should never trade certain players no matter what the compensation would be. I’m not that sentimental. I want to win championships. If that means you trade away any player someone wants to pay what I think said player is worth, and I think I can improve the team with that haul, you bet your ass I’m doing it. Especially when I’m in the kind of rebuild the Steelers are in.
Not having a trade value placed on every single player on this team is organizational malpractice.
Certainly so, problem is, what would Team X (and Pgh) view as reasonble? Team X may not wanna give up so much, as what you say above (paragraph two) is true, today.
A starting WR2? Shemar Stewart? A guy that will play and play well is preferable today, as opposed to a draft pick, or a project.
$160MM, $125MM is also ridiculous for Garrett. Browns is the Browns, go Flying J guy, Mr. Haslem.
I have no Idea what the Steelers think Watt is worth in compensation, but the Steelers damn well better, or they have the wrong guys running the front office.
If Garrett is worth that money so is TJ. Do the Steelers want to pay that?? As I said above no QB contract, so they could, but is that the best way to spend 40M per year for the next 4 years? I think these better be the questions being asked in the FO right now. This is big money.
Certainly, fat stacks are involved. Certainly the FO should have a value for T.J., and Team X’s T.J. considered value will be less than Pgh’s. No rational person thinks Garrett or T.J. is honestly worth ca. $40MM AAV w/$123MM guaranteed… Haslem is dumb. To me, some scheme more like Hunter’s is a reasonble compromise, with incentives leading to $40MM+ per year, and two years. Not likely T.J. would love that, maybe.
T.J. is not a piece on a chess board. (If he was, it would be the queen with a flamethrower.) What does he want that we can’t give him? Because he’s given us a lot!
It’s a business? I’m not making a penny off that business.
Sign TJ
Yes, and management will want to pay as little as possible for future performance… today it does make sense to retain T.J.. Negotiations are often hard.
I’d like to see how the “fire Tomlin” crowd correlates to the “trade TJ” crowd. I would guess it’s a lot of the same members
Likely some overlap there in the Venn diagram. It is what it is.
Any article written about any trade for any player has to include a discussion about the return, no? TJ Watt shouldn’t be traded unless he wants to be. Fine, but what it a team got crazy and offered two first round picks for him? What if a team offered a first round pick and a really good #2 receiver for him? I am not saying that the above trades are realistic and need to be analyzed. I am saying that in a league where a team gave up 3 firsts for Deshaun Watson, you never know.
Should TJ Watt be traded? Probably not. If a team were to offer something incredible for him though? That could change the paradigm.
When discussing that the Steelers don’t trade away their core players unless they request it, the return is irrelevant. The Steelers simply don’t trade away players like TJ Watt, Cam Heyward, Troy Polamalu, Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward… I can keep going. What they get in return is merely a fan dream, not a reality of how the Steelers do business. There are certain players who are not and will not be on the trading block regardless of the offer… unless they ask for it. That’s the time for looking at a reasonable compensation. I think it’s too hard to judge. Others can talk about it if they wish, but I’m not going to speculate something that can’t reasonably be estimated.
To give an example of what I mean, a team could offer the Steelers both their first and second round picks in the next three drafts. Would a team come anywhere close to doing this? I highly doubt it. If they did, would the Steelers take the deal? I highly doubt it. You’re getting into such a range of hypotheticals because the Steelers aren’t going to move the player that the discussion becomes irrelevant. Just my opinion.
They actually did attempt to trade Ben, but then coach of the 9ers Mike Singletary rejected the trade.
That was when he was young and had off-field troubles. Then he grew up and moved into the untradeable category. I probably should have said “grown up Ben Roethlisberger.”
That worked out for us. Credit to Ben for growing up, not many people can make that change in the moment.
Agreed.
I don’t disagree but would add one word to your statement of truth:
“…..the Steelers don’t historically trade away their core players…..”
With the new regime that is in place, I am not sure that it wouldn’t accept an offer in which a team was offering something ridiculous. We’ll probably never know for sure either way.
Excellent point.
Sure, but I’ll say it’s highly unlikely that the return is as valuable to the Steelers in the present day as TJ Watt is.
Yes, today it makes sense to retainT.J., for multiple reasons.
a true Pittsburgh Steelers fan, since the 70’s it is ridiculous even thinking about trading T.J. Watt
Amen.
You never “win” a trade when you’re trading away the best player in the deal. And given what we all know about the Steelers’ record without TJ on the field, I don’t know how any Steelers fan could think it wouldn’t be a nightmare to try to replace him.
Generally, I agree. In the case of draft picks, though, a lot of time is needed to see what those actually become. Strictly hypothetically, trading TJ Watt now for a first would be a loss for the Steelers. If that draft pick turns out to be a perennial Pro Bowl quality player, though? That could spin things given the ages of the players ie. the young guy will be here longer moving forward.
And in the near term, trading T.J. means losing ca. 1/4 of the sacks and a good run defender, with no equivalent replacement. Kind of a big loss, IMO. The current DC is unlikely able to adjust to such a loss, either.