The Cleveland Browns traded two-time Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday. In exchange, Cleveland received Jared Verse. He’s a 25-year-old defensive lineman with 12 career sacks, two Pro Bowl appearances and a Defensive Rookie of the Year award on his resume during his first two NFL seasons.

Los Angeles also shipped to Cleveland a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick.

That news has a wave of folks in Pittsburgh suggesting that the Steelers follow Cleveland’s path by trading T.J. Watt.

OK, well, to that last point, if the Steelers do trade Watt, they aren’t trading him within the division. That’s not realistic.

But it’s no less goofy a suggestion than believing that the Steelers could even get a sniff of what Cleveland got for Garrett if they deal Watt.

Garrett just had his best season at age 30, setting the NFL record with 23 sacks. He also set a career high with 43 solo tackles and tied a career high with 60 total tackles.

Watt’s sack total decreased from 19 in 2023 to 11.5 in 2024. Then, last year, Watt only posted seven sacks and 23 solo tackles. Even before he got poked in the lung while dry needling at the team facility, Watt had just one sack in the previous four games.

The only place in America where people are still doing favorable Watt-to-Garrett comps after last year is Pittsburgh. If the Steelers were to trade Watt, there’s no way the team is getting back a two-time Pro Bowler in Year 3 of his entry-level deal, plus a first, second and third-round pick.

Forget about it.

Especially not with $64 million in guaranteed salary remaining on his contract through the end of the 2027 season.

Could the Steelers get something of value in return for Watt? Sure. There were rumors of the Packers trying to get Arizona’s Josh Sweat after the Garrett deal went down. Maybe there is a panicked arms race among NFC contenders for pass rushers. That could boost the price.

In March, a Bleacher Report trade proposal was floated of Watt plus a third-rounder in 2027 to San Francisco for the Niners’ 2027 first-rounder.

Watt and second-day capital for a likely late first-rounder is probably as good as the Steelers are going to get. Even that may be optimistic at this point.

Not only do Watt’s age, injury history and lagging production come into play, but so does the knowledge that other teams have that the Steelers also may be motivated to move Watt because they could want to sign Nick Herbig, who is entering the final year of his entry-level contract.

Watt and Alex Highsmith already cost a combined $62 million against the salary cap at outside linebacker this season.

And it’s not like Mike McCarthy and Patrick Graham have a decade-long relationship built up with Watt, as Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin did.

The most likely scenario is — like the Penguins retaining Evgeni Malkin multiple times in the autumn of his career — the Steelers have already prioritized the legacy of keeping Watt in one uniform. For the $123 million they paid him in a contract extension (with one year left on his existing contract) last July, they must’ve been hoping he’d buy a divining rod to find the Fountain of Youth.

Art Rooney II, Omar Khan and Tomlin committed to that decision by offering Watt that much money a year ago, coming off a fading 2024 season.

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Sure, Cleveland’s trade of Garrett opened the window for discussion of trading Watt at some point in 2026. But the idea of securing a return like Cleveland got slammed shut the minute Watt signed that extension 11 months ago.