The Pittsburgh Steelers defense is full of stars. T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Cameron Heyward are all superstars, faces of one of the most famous franchises in the NFL. It is no surprise that other defenders around the league would love to play with them, and due to free agency some players now do get to play with the Steelers’ superstars. One of those guys lucky enough to team up with them is defensive lineman Breiden Fehoko.
Fehoko joined Kevin Adams and Jersey Jerry on the Steel Here podcast on YouTube and talked about how he is excited to play with the Steelers’ defensive superstars. However, there was one player Fehoko singled out as a player he can’t wait to play with when asked.
“Cam Heyward, and that’s a no-brainer,” responded Fehoko. “I don’t want him to take offense, but I grew up watching him in high school, even to his days back in college. And it’s crazy now that I think it’s year 12 in the league for him, or 13.”
Sometimes it is hard to remember that Heyward is such an elder statesman in the league, especially given that his play has only gotten better with age. Hearing that he was a player who Fehoko idolized growing up will probably make Heyward feel old, but I’m sure he is excited to work with Fehoko.
Later on Fehoko went into why he looks up Heyward so much, to which he spoke about how Heyward plays the game the right way.
“When you watch his game, you don’t see a flashy player. You see somebody who’s hard-nosed. You see somebody who’s rugged. You see somebody who plays the game the right way.”
Heyward certainly isn’t the flashiest players. Despite consistently putting up some of the best numbers for defensive tackles over the past decade, it wasn’t really until around 2017 when Heyward became a nationally known name.
However, Fehoko didn’t only mention Heyward as someone he was looking forward to playing with. He also mentioned Watt, Larry Ogunjobi, Montravius Adams, and Alex Highsmith. Fehoko told the Steel Here podcast that he is so excited to play with all those guys given how he looks up to all of them.
“So a lot of guys that I’ve been fans of, been fond of their game, I’m excited to play with now and then be able to compete with them and grind with them every day.”
Fehoko will provide much needed depth and competition at the nose tackle position for Pittsburgh. While he didn’t see too much action in his time with the Los Angeles Chargers, being able to practice with all those aforementioned players on the Steelers will certainly boost his game and vice-versa.
Life comes full circle sometimes. Fehoko got to play video games with Troy Polamalu as a kid, and now gets to play on the same defensive line as one of his idols, and Polamalu’s teammate in Cameron Heyward.
You can catch the whole interview below.
