Steelers

T.J. Watt Wants To Remain With Steelers Long Term

January 13, 2025

Steelers OLB T.J. Watt said he’s frustrated with the team’s lack of playoff success, but wants to remain in Pittsburgh and be part of the solution.

“I want to be at Pittsburgh Steeler,” Watt said, via ESPN. “You guys know that. I don’t want to leave this place, especially in this — I want to be part of the solution. I’ve put so much into it here. I’ve seen so many guys. I mean I want to help Cam Heyward get to where we need to get. I want to be a part of the solution. I don’t want to leave this place. I love the people here. And that goes beyond just the coaches, it’s the fan base, it’s the people, the community, and we owe it to them to get it right. And I want to be part of the solution, not leave here and go somewhere else. That’s not my intention at all.”

Watt said that he needs to play better and the team as a whole needs to improve.

“It’s tough,” Watt said. “We sit here the same time as last year, the same time as I’ve been in this scrum and same questions, and I have the same answers. Obviously, I’m very frustrated with how things ended, and that’s not just with the last game, that’s at the last month of football. It’s a collection of things, and it starts with myself, and I need to play better. We need to play better. There’s not one thing that needs to be fixed here. There’s a lot of things, but it starts internally with myself and needing to play better in bigger moments and it’ll be a long off season to have to sit with that.”

Watt, 30, 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 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.

In 2024, Watt appeared in all 17 games and recorded 61 total tackles, 19 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks, six forced fumbles, two recoveries and four pass defenses.