Potential Steelers' T.J. Watt disaster reaches DEFCON 1 after Cam Heyward's message

Tick, tock. Tick, tock... The clock keeps ticking, as we rapidly approach the start of NFL training camps across the league. Most teams are so incredibly excited about the season ahead. While that may be true for the Pittsburgh Steelers and their rabid fanbase, this has been one of the noisiest offseasons I can ever remember surrounding this pillar franchise. Why are things not buttoned-up?

Well, star edge rusher T.J. Watt does not have a contract extension. Things got particularly nasty the last time this happened some four years ago. Watt did get paid right before the start of the season, but you can sense the growing frustration mount, enough to the tipping point of him potentially wanting out. Of course, his long-time Steelers teammate Cameron Heyward wants no part of this...

Heyward said as much while appearing on The Rich Eisen Show earlier this week discussing Watt.

“Man, that's my brother. I want that dude to get paid what he deserves. That dude is one of the most fierce and best players in our league and he’s respected throughout the league. . . . I’ve had the best time being able to play with him, and I hope this year is not the last time we play together because that dude, that’s my running mate. We’ve created a lot of havoc together, and I just want to see that guy continue to be a Pittsburgh Steeler and be a one-helmet guy.”

On the topic of the Steelers possibly looking at trading Watt, Heyward said he will never let it happen.

“I’m going up to [Steelers General Manager] Omar [Khan] and I’m telling him, ‘That’s not happening. If there’s even a trade that gets up there, I don’t think it helps our team to trade a guy like that.”

Here is the clip of Heyward's appearance on The Rich Eisen Show discussing a multitude of topics.

He has long carried the Steelers' water, but you can only bring a horse to water, not make it drink any.

Cameron Heyward's T.J. Watt stance says everything about the Steelers

Now that we are fully in the second half of July, I am starting to get the sense that it would look too horrible optically for the Steelers to enter the season without having Watt extended. If that were to happen, he would be as good as gone. He would no longer be a Steeler for life, but rather a one-year contract mercenary, just out there doing work for himself and his best interests. This cannot happen.

It is why I am of the belief that logic will inevitably prevail. When you have the longest-tenured member of a team seemingly pounding the table to keep a guy, what does that say? It suggests that letting a star player like Watt walk would be devastating to the team's overall core. It would be next to impossible for the team to have any real buy-in from ownership to say they are serious about winning.

What I am getting at is if ownership and the front office are not going to take Heyward's pleas to keep Watt around, this is no longer a serious franchise. When you draft a player of this caliber late in the first round, it is up to you to make sure that every team who took somebody ahead of you forever regret it. It would be so strange to see Watt in another uniform, but I am not ruling that out just yet.

The Steelers are more like the Dallas Cowboys than anyone in Pittsburgh would want to ever admit.