The Pittsburgh Steelers signed fullback Derek Watt to a three-year contract worth nearly $10 million in 2020. It made him the second-highest-paid fullback in the league at the time. Why? To hear some tell it, it was part of some elaborate ruse to coax T.J. Watt to sign long-term in Pittsburgh—as if $112 million, including $80 million fully guaranteed, the most ever given to a defender at the time—wasn’t incentive enough.
I might point out that the contract was signed last year and yet Derek is still here. But I digress. The conversation about his compensation, albeit frequently thrown off-track by misunderstandings of the salary cap, is a legitimate one.