The Pittsburgh Steelers lost defensive end Cameron Heyward to a hamstring injury during the second quarter of Sunday’s home win over the New York Jets and it appears as though he will remain sidelined the next few weeks as a result.
According to Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network, while the hamstring injury that Heyward suffered against the Jets isn’t horribly serious, according to her sources, it’s bad enough to keep him out for the next 2-3 weeks at a minimum.
Heyward appeared to have suffered the injury while rushing on a 3rd and 8 play with 11:48 left in the first half. I have an animated gif of that play below for you to see. He never returned to the game after that play.
At this point, you can probably count on Heyward missing the Steelers next two games against the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. Thankfully for the Steelers, their bye week is scheduled for Week 8 so we can only hope that he’ll be healthy enough to return to action for the Week 9 road game against the Baltimore Ravens.
With Heyward out of action for the time being, veteran Ricardo Mathews and rookie Javon Hargrave will both likely get playing time at right defensive end just as they did Sunday against the Jets after the injury happened. Second-year defensive end L.T. Walton will also likely continue to dress for games while Heyward is sidelined.
