HOUSTON – The money always matters. It's the most clear-cut and tangible sign of NFL respect. Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt knows it. He'll even say it, albeit far more gingerly than anything else he does in football.

Over the past month, Watt watched silently as a select few members of his disgustingly loaded 2011 NFL draft class have bathed in lucrative contract extensions. Two pulled it off despite two years remaining on their rookie deals: Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson (five years, $70 million) and Cowboys offensive tackle Tyron Smith (eight years, $98 million). Two quarterbacks with a single year left on their deals (San Francisco's Colin Kaepernick and Cincinnati's Andy Dalton) each reeled in six-year deals worth $126 and $115 million, respectively.

View photos Jaguars QB Chad Henne is sacked by J.J. Watt last season. (USA TODAY Sports) More

And Watt, who has two years left on his $11.24 million deal? Despite being arguably the NFL's most dominant player not taking starting snaps in Denver, New England or Green Bay, his contract situation has gone dark. Watt will be the ninth-highest paid player on the Texans this season, at $3.575 million. That's less than rookie Jadeveon Clowney ($4.04 million), who has yet to take a regular-season snap in the NFL.

One league source told Yahoo Sports the two sides were not close to a deal as of last week. Indeed, the only real news has come from odd (and remarkably early) negotiating flares sent by Texans owner Bob McNair. Less than two weeks ago, McNair told ESPN.com that the team is willing to use the franchise tag on Watt after 2015, and has settled on a "team-first" stance in the approach to negotiations.

That raised a few eyebrows in the NFL agent community, largely because talk about franchise tags and salary-cap responsibility are typically break-the-glass options for ownership – and employed when negotiations are going poorly.

For his part, Watt has said almost nothing. But what little he does say is clear: He knows he has vastly outplayed the salary he'll be paid this season, and he has noticed other elite players from his draft class getting such disparities resolved.

"It's been great to see some of these [2011] guys get deals, because it shows that their teams appreciate what work they put in," Watt told Yahoo Sports last week. "You work extremely hard in this league to do as well as you can and hopefully earn that respect and to earn that appreciation.

"It's nice that those teams have shown that appreciation of their players. Those decisions aren't made by me. I know what I can do. I can work as hard as I possibly can. And then I'll let the team decide what I'm worth. Then we'll see how it goes from there."

Asked specifically how he feels about franchise tag talk, Watt paused, smiled, and reiterated his message.

"I like to see those guys be shown appreciation so far," he said. "I hope that I've worked hard enough and hopefully I've put myself in a situation where I can be shown some of the same appreciation. Hopefully they feel I've outplayed my current contract, but the end of the day, we're paid to play football. If I got paid a little more, I wouldn't be terribly upset."

Texans owner Bob McNair (USA TODAY Sports) More

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