{"id":72455,"date":"2025-07-18T11:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/72455\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T11:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:01:10","slug":"steelers-t-j-watt-agree-to-terms-on-record-three-year-123-million-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/72455\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers, T.J. Watt agree to terms on record three-year, $123 million extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n What does this mean for edge rusher market?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watt’s deal, while not guaranteed, was undoubtedly deserved and considered by some to be inevitable. Now that it’s done, the attention turns to two more elite rushers — Cincinnati’s Trey Hendrickson<\/a> and Dallas’ Micah Parsons<\/a> — and an ascending star in Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hendrickson is embroiled<\/a> in his own standoff<\/a> with the Bengals, which has included public statements of dismay from Hendrickson with little suggestion the two sides are nearing a deal. With 17.5 sacks in each of his last two seasons — a mark that was the best in the NFL in 2024 — Hendrickson has a strong case<\/a> for a multiyear extension, and because Watt’s deal only moved the market forward incrementally at $1 million more per year than Garrett’s deal, Hendrickson remains in a similar negotiating position as he enters the final year of his contract. Cincinnati cleared nearly $6 million in cap space by releasing<\/a> Germaine Pratt<\/a> in early June, leaving it with $31.9 million in effective cap space, per Over The Cap, a total that would make fitting in a comparable deal for Hendrickson possible, even if it tests the limits of the budget.<\/p>\n

At minimum, Watt’s deal applies additional pressure on the Bengals to work something out with Hendrickson, especially with training camp right around the corner. That doesn’t guarantee this doesn’t drag into August, though.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys have already learned they’d missed the window to sign Parsons to a team-friendly deal, especially after the market exploded with deals for Maxx Crosby<\/a>, Garrett and now Watt. They’re undoubtedly going to pay a premium to keep Parsons, a four-time Pro Bowler and two-time first-team All-Pro who possesses game-changing potential and will command top dollar. He’s entering the final year of his rookie deal, and with little reason to believe the two sides are close to an agreement, expect Parsons’ contract situation to remain in the headlines for weeks to come, if not months.<\/p>\n

The Lions have a larger window than Dallas and Cincinnati to work out a deal with Hutchinson and might choose to use that time, especially considering Hutchinson is returning from a significant leg injury suffered in 2024, one that ended a season that was building toward a Defensive Player of the Year candidacy. With two years left on his rookie deal, Hutchinson has time to prove to the Lions he’s worth the money, while Detroit — a team that isn’t afraid to lock up its best players early — can also patiently craft a deal that makes sense for both sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What does this mean for edge rusher market? Watt’s deal, while not guaranteed, was undoubtedly deserved and considered…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":72456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[43574,104,50,1232,530,1545,62,21082,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-72455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-no-minute","13":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-t-j-watt","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114873898236812173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}