Gerry Dulac is reporting that Steelers OLB T.J. Watt is expected to return to the team following their bye and in time for their Week 10 game against the Saints.
On Saturday, Brooke Pryor and Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that Watt recently underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and the expectation now is that his return will be delayed “by another week or two.”
Watt is working his way back from a torn pectoral muscle. However, a preseason knee injury had lingered to the point where he felt like it was best to get that taken care of now too.
The original timeline for Watt to return was six weeks after he sustained the pectoral injury during Week 1’s game against the Eagles, but he’ll now be out through the bye.
Watt, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Steelers back in 2017. He played out his four-year, $9.258 million contract and made a base salary of $1.72 million in 2020.
Pittsburgh exercised Watt’s fifth-year option last offseason for $10.089 million in 2021. He then signed a four-year extension worth over $112 million with the Steelers that included $80 million fully guaranteed at signing.
The Steelers recently restructured his deal in order to create $6.75 million in cap space.
In 2021, Watt appeared in 15 games for the Steelers and recorded 64 tackles, 22.5 sacks, five forced fumbles, three recoveries, and seven pass deflections.
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