Steelers Source Leaks 'We Are Working On It' With T.J. Watt Contract Optimism

Do you as a passionate Pittsburgh Steelers fan want the good T.J. Watt news from ESPN?

Or do you want the bad T.J. Watt news from ESPN?

Or ... how about a compromise, with the realization that for all the sound and the fury, there is no real T.J. Watt news from ESPN?

On Saturday’s SportsCenter, ESPN "insider'' Jeremy Fowler attempted to provide some insight into what's happening with Watt’s contract negotiations. He included a leak from an unnamed Steelers source while suggesting it represents positivity.

"Well," Fowler said, "I talked to somebody with the team who said, 'Look, these are complicated deals to do, but we are working on it. We want T.J. Watt here.''

OK. Now we're talking!

Or are we?

Unfortunately, it was 24 hours or so earlier when ESPN suggested the idea of Watt being traded to his home-state Green Bay Packers. What did that presentation sound like?

“I’m gonna make T.J. Watt happy, the player, 'Hey, come home to Wisconsin,” a reporter theorized this week on ESPN’s Get Up. “Play for the hometown, home area Packers. The Green Bay Packers are actually low-key looking at the pass rush market around free agency, potential trades, potential signings. They have some new cap space after they moved on from Jaire Alexander, the star cornerback.

"Why not use that money and make T.J. Watt the highest paid edge rusher?”

Wow! So ESPN Guy No. 1 (Fowler) is saying that the Steelers are "working on it'' while a fellow ESPN Guy No. 2 makes the situation sound so bad that the Steelers should deal Watt to the Packers?

Oops. Check that. 

Jeremy Fowler is ESPN Guy No. 1, and, we kid you not, he is also ESPN Guy No. 2.

Fowler is in fact telling you, passionate Pittsburgh Steelers fan, that things are moving along smoothy AND things are an ugly mess.

Watt — who has led the NFL in sacks in three of the past five seasons, who is a four-time First-Team All-Pro selection, who is the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year and who is an institution in Pittsburgh — is seeking a top of the market deal that might end up getting him in the range of a bank-breaking $40 million APY.

Watt, 30, is presently entering the final year of his four-year, $112 million deal he signed in 2021. He really might become the highest-paid ever among non-QB's, surpassing Cleveland Browns star Myles Garrett by signing a monster deal.

Those are the T.J. Watt facts that should be nailed to the wall.

Most of the rest of this is ESPN feces being thrown against the wall.