Cap situation provides 'different environment' for Steelers to sign T.J. Watt to long-term deal

On the heels of emerging as the NFL’s defensive player of the year runner-up, T.J. Watt set himself up for a big payday before he can become a free agent in 2022.

With Watt playing this season on his fifth-year option, worth $10.089 million, he could see his base salary triple next year. That hinges on whether the Steelers can get a deal done before the start of the regular season, which is the franchise’s hard deadline to cease negotiations.

Working in Watt’s favor is that the Steelers will be awash in money next year. The salary cap of $182.5 million could jump significantly — perhaps to $210 million.

“It’s a different environment completely,” general manager Kevin Colbert said Tuesday.

After having to slash and restructure salaries in the spring to get compliant with the cap, the Steelers are in a much better financial situation for 2022. According to salary-tracking site overthecap.com, the Steelers have $135.5 million in cap obligations for next season.

“Moving forward, we think we know where the cap will go,” Colbert said. “We’re hopeful that it does. Can we make certain players fit within our group? We always will do a deal based on what it does for us in 2021 and try to project what it will do three years down the road. That is not unique, other than not knowing what that amount will be.”

As per his custom, Colbert would not discuss Watt’s negotiations specifically.

“We know who our free agents are, we know we want to keep our good players,” he said. “We’ll see where it goes as the summer unfolds.”

In other items that Colbert addressed Tuesday with the media:

• He is not thinking ahead to whether Ben Roethlisberger will be the Steelers quarterback in 2022 at age 40.

He called Roethlisberger’s decision to take a $5 million pay cut “an unselfish move on his part.” Roethlisberger can become a free agent after the season.

“Beyond that, none of us know,” Colbert said. “We’ll work with 2021 and see where it goes from there.”

• On the Steelers adding voidable years to contracts after refraining from that practice in prior years: “We talk about trying to keep pace with what is going on in the league,” he said.

That includes giving one-year contracts to free agents. The Steelers typically try to do two-year deals that are back-loaded.

Colbert, though, said one organizational stance won’t change.

“We won’t negotiate with players once the season starts,” he said. “I don’t ever ever see that changing because our only focus (in the season) should be on winning a Super Bowl.”

• He said 90% of Steelers players are fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated players have to wear a yellow band on their wrist.

“We tried to educate our players as best we could,” he said.