“Contract Negotiations Are Not Going As Well”: Ian Rapoport Decodes TJ Watt’s Cryptic Post

Since T.J. Watt’s first Pro Bowl season in 2018, he has racked up 101.0 sacks, 212 QB hits, and 116 tackles for loss, all of which lead the league during that span. He’s a seven-time Pro Bowler, a four-time First-Team All-Pro, a one-time Second-Team All-Pro, and the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year. And he gets paid like it. He signed a four-year, $112.011 deal in 2021 that made him the highest-paid defensive player ever.

However, since then, many of his peers have signed new deals that have surpassed his contract both in total money and average annual value. His deal is now fifth among edge rushers in total value and seventh in AAV (just over $28 million). The timing is perfect because Watt, who is still just 30 years old, is due for an extension with his current deal wrapping up after the 2025 season. Unfortunately, negotiations with the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t made much progress yet.

Because there have been no positive updates on the negotiations, many have assumed the worst. Watt posting a picture of himself running off the field holding up the peace sign on his Instagram story recently didn’t help to quell the fears. So, Ian Rapoport was called upon to give his best guess as to what Watt’s post means. If you want to see someone read way too much into something, this is the clip for you.

“Rarely is it actually nothing. Generally, when a player makes a cryptic social media post … it’s almost never nothing. So let’s assume for the sake of argument, for the sake of me actually having a reason to talk about this, that it is something. Now, did T.J. Watt just say, you know what, I kinda look like a boss in that picture, I’m just gonna put it up so the fans know how I cool I am. That seems farfetched to me.”

From @GMFB: Evaluating TJ Watt’s cryptic instagram post. pic.twitter.com/MjaIzArgeA

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 10, 2025

After discounting the possibility that this was just a vanity post for Watt, Rapoport dove into his opinion on the matter: that Watt made the social media post to express frustration with how his contract negotiations with the Steelers’ brass have been going.

“We’ve seen several top edge rushers get paid … but T.J. Watt, set to make just $21 million this year, is in that category. Generally, when a player makes a social media post that forces us to talk about it on TV … it is because contract negotiations are not going as well as anybody had hoped. If they were going well, if things were all wrapped up, then this would be more like this [thumbs up] and less like this [peace sign]. … So I think we can safely say contract talks between T.J. Watt and the Steelers are not off to a rip-roaring start. That doesn’t mean they won’t get there, they’ve gotten there before.”

Let’s not forget that Watt signed his last historic deal in September, just before the 2021 season started, so these sides have muddled through extended negotiations before. Rapoport’s take on the Watt picture did make logical sense. However, it speaks more to where we are in the NFL calendar right now than anything meaningful in the negotiations.

One user commented on Rapoport’s above tweet saying, “slow news week huh“, while another said, “so basically he has no idea what it means so he making up what he thinks it mean cuz he need something to talk about“. Still another lamented that, “We can’t possibly be THIS deep into the offseason“. Yes, Dip Smipple, we can really be that deep into the offseason.

As an all-time Steeler who has never played for another franchise, smart money would be on these two sides hammering out a deal sooner rather than later. With Micah Parsons and Trey Hendrickson also on the docket for massive edge rusher contracts, however, the Steelers would do well to get theirs done first so they don’t get priced out by those other deals.