PITTSBURGH — T.J. Watt grew up trying to find a way to escape from the considerable shadows of older brothers J.J. and Derek.

It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t always fun. Yet it prepared the Pittsburgh Steelers star to become one of the NFL’s most disruptive players, a game-wrecking edge rusher who plays with a controlled fury honed from years of trying to hang with the big kids.

So while Watt understands the attention that comes with the massive contract he officially signed on Friday that will make him the highest-paid defender in the league, it’s nothing he can’t handle.

“I’ve been dealing with pressure my whole life,” the two-time All-Pro said after a contract that will bump his pay to $28 million a season in 2022. “Everybody always asks, ‘What’s it like to be the younger brother of X, Y, Z?’ You know the answers to all that: I’m built for this. And I truly believe that nothing monetary will change me as a person. The work that I put in will not change. It will only grow.”

The Steelers are counting on it.

Watt has become the linchpin of one of the NFL’s best defenses since being taken with the 30th overall pick in the 2017 draft. His 49½ career sacks include a league-high 15 last fall when he finished a close runner-up to Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald for the Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The Steelers made clear their willingness to keep Watt in the fold long-term. Yet negotiations dragged on during a training camp in which Watt opted to “hold in,” meaning he was a regular at practice but declined to take the field for 11-on-11 full-contact drills with the first-team defense or play in any of Pittsburgh’s four preseason contests.

Standing on the sideline wasn’t easy for a workaholic who teammates — quarterback Ben Roethlisberger chief among them — consider the best player in the NFL. Watt wore a heart-rate monitor to check his exertion levels to keep himself game ready but admitted he sensed a disconnect at times between himself and the rest of the team.

“There were definitely some moments through this whole process where you do feel like you’re almost by yourself,” Watt said.

Well, almost. Watt leaned heavily on his brothers as he went through contract talks for the first time in his career, though they didn’t have much in the way of advice. Not even J.J., who went through a similar situation during the offseason when he signed a two-year deal worth $31 million with Arizona after nearly a decade in Houston.