New Delhi, June 15 -- PITTSBURGH - The number that should concern the Pittsburgh Steelers most is not seven. It is forty-two.

Seven is the sack total T.J. Watt posted last season, his lowest since 2018 and the figure at the center of a Bleacher Report ranking that placed his three-year, $123 million extension among the ten worst contracts in the NFL entering 2026. Forty-two is the annual cap hit - in millions of dollars - that Watt's deal now costs Pittsburgh for each of the next two seasons, a balloon payment the Steelers agreed to at the precise moment they had to know a second massive pass-rusher commitment was coming for Nick Herbig.

Put those two facts together and what emerges is not simply a disappointing individual contract. It ...