The Pittsburgh Steelers are now into the offseason, following a year in which they had high hopes for Super Bowl success, but ultimately fell short of even reaching the postseason at 8-8. It was a tumultuous season, both on the field and within the roster, and the months to follow figure to have some drama as well, especially in light of the team’s failure to improve upon the year before.
The team made some bold moves over the course of the past year, and some areas of the roster look quite a bit different than they did a year ago, or even at the start of the regular season. Whether due to injuries or otherwise, a lot has transpired, and we’re left to wonder how much more will change prior to September.
How will Ben Roethlisberger’s rehab progress as he winds toward recovery from an elbow injury that cost him almost the entire season? What about some of the key young players, some of whom have already impressed, others still needing quite a bit of growth? Will there be changes to the coaching staff? The front office? Who will they not retain in free agency, and whom might they bring in?
These are the sorts of questions among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked, though there is rarely a concrete answer, as I’ve learned in my years of doing this.
Question: When will the Steelers complete a contract extension for Cameron Heyward?
It wasn’t so long ago that Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the Steelers should be getting a contract extension for Cameron Heyward done ‘soon’. He wrote that during more uncertain times with regards to the salary cap and what moves the Steelers were going to make, however.
By this point, Pittsburgh is pretty set for the time being with where they are from a salary cap and free agency standpoint. They don’t need, for example, to make any moves to open up additional cap space to accommodate impending additions.
In other words, there is no rush for the team to get a deal done sooner rather than later. Typically, and under most cases, the Steelers wait until the summer, typically at the start of training camp, to get extensions done, with the most notable exception being for quarterbacks, but certain core players like Maurkice Pouncey could also receive an early extension.
With the team focusing on the draft right now, I do have a hard time seeing the Steelers wrapping up an extension for Heyward prior to then. It’s possible that it could happen at any point after that, though. This will not be the traditional offseason with likely not OTAs and things of that nature, so their usual timeline will not be in place anyway. The only thing we really know is that an extension will happen at some point, and that it would probably though not necessary lower his cap hit a bit.
