CLEVELAND, Ohio – JJ Watt has discovered that choosing a new team is not an exact science.
Watt, who shook the Twitter world on Tuesday when he tweeted cryptically, “Mitochondria is the cell’s power source,” has made progress in narrowing its options, but “nothing is imminent” according to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.
As of Sunday, the Browns were still in the mix because they had a lot of things Watt was looking for, including Super Bowl potential, a good quarterback, supporting cast and money, a league source told cleveland.com.
Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh tweeted on Wednesday that John Clayton of 710 ESPN in Seattle on Fillipponi’s show said that Watt “Won’t come to Pittsburgh” and that Tennessee, Green Bay and Buffalo are the three teams. He also said the Raiders are the dark horse.
Clayton later explained in a tweet that Tennessee, Green Bay and Buffalo are the frontrunners, but that the Browns and Raiders are still in it. The report also differs from one of Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who said that Packers will not sign Watt because they do not have the headroom.
Of the teams most associated with Watt so far, the Browns are 14th in the NFL with $ 27.66 million in the space for their 51 best players, according to spotrac.com, the Bills are 20th ($ 4.5 million) , the Titans are 21st ($ 2.3 million), the Packers are 25th ($ 4.5 million over the hood), and the Steelers are $ 6.029 million over the hood.
The Steelers may soon clear up some space after redesigning Ben Roethlisberger’s contract, which according to team president Art Rooney II is the next step in a statement on Tuesday to make him return in 2021.
Roethlisberger, who has a $ 15 million roster bonus on March 19, will earn $ 19 million in 2021, but has a $ 41.25 million cap. If the two sides agree on a restructuring, which Roethlisberger said he was willing to do, the Steelers will have the opportunity to bolster his supporting cast with some new lineouts and perhaps a new setback.
However, that does not mean they could afford the older brother of TJ and Derek Watt, who could earn from $ 12.5 million a year to $ 17.5 million a year, depending on the duration and structure of the deal.
Teams are currently releasing players and restructuring contracts to get under the hood, which is expected to amount to about $ 185 million somewhere by the time the league year begins on March 17. The canopy was raised from $ 175 million to $ 180 million last week.
If the Browns do not sign, they will consider replacing Von Miller, Carl Lawson, Trey Hendrickson, Leonard Williams and Haason Reddick as Olivier Vernon, who finished with nine sacks last season before breaking a Achilles tendon in the final season. had.
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