Russell Wilson isn’t the only player who wants to stay with the Steelers.
Edge rusher T.J. Watt, who has one year left on his contract, also said Monday he hopes for an extension that keeps him in Pittsburgh beyond 2025.
“I want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler,” Watt said, via Brooke Pryor of 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 signed a four-year, $112 million extension in 2021, which will pay him a $21 million base salary in 2025 in the final year of the deal.
The Steelers drafted Watt 30th overall in 2017, and while he has earned defensive player of the year once and All-Pro four times, the team is 0-5 in the postseason.
The Steelers’ 2024 season ended with a 28-14 loss to the Ravens, a game in which Watt had no stats despite playing 63 of 74 defensive snaps.
“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 did not register a stat of any kind in the final two games of the season. According to Josh Rowntree of 93.7 The Fan, Watt went his final 193 snaps of the season without recording a stat.
Watt was second-team All-Pro.