Outside Linebacker · Pittsburgh Steelers

T.J. Watt

No. 90 · 10th season

The best defensive player on the field might also have the worst deal

There is a particular kind of irony in being named the best defensive player in the league and still ending up on a list of the worst contracts in football. That is where T.J. Watt finds himself now.

Watt won Defensive Player of the Year honors with the Pittsburgh Steelers — the kind of award that typically resets a player's market and rewrites their legacy in the same breath. Whatever the contract looked like when he signed it, at least one NFL writer believes the math no longer adds up in Watt's favor.

For a player who has given everything to one franchise, that verdict stings in a specific way. It is not just about money. It is about what the number says — and what it says is that the ledger has tilted.

Watt is still out there every Sunday. Whether the Steelers decide that matters is the question now sitting on the table.

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