Call Connor Heyward what you will. Tight end. Fullback. H-Back. It doesn’t matter. He’s an offensive chess piece who made plays as a rookie and is aiming to build on that as a sophomore.
Last week, Pittsburgh Steelers’ RBs Coach Eddie Faulkner talked about Heyward’s role in the Steelers’ offense. Without FB Derek Watt, there’s seemingly a chance for Heyward to get more involved. But Faulkner didn’t pigeonhole him into one spot.
“Connor’s just such a utility knife,” he said via the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “You can do a lot of stuff with him. He can come in the backfield, he can play fullback. He can play [H-back]. He could be a running back. He could be a tight end. He could be an F.”
Heyward has moved around throughout his football career. A running back at Michigan State, he transitioned to a hybrid role for his final season with the Spartans. Wake Forest RB Kenneth Walker transferred to MSU and caused the team to move Heyward around, allowing him chances to still get on the field he wouldn’t have otherwise had if he remained at running back.
As a senior, Heyward caught 35 passes for more than 300 yards and thee touchdowns, including a spiraling TD grab to help beat Pitt in the final game of his college career. In the pre-draft process, Heyward saw lots of work as a fullback but the Steelers used a 6th round pick on him and put him in the team’s tight end room.
Heyward saw his role grow as a rookie and he made plays down the stretch, scoring his first touchdown against the Atlanta Falcons and coming up with clutch plays over the final few weeks. He took a jet sweep for the game-clinching first down against the Las Vegas Raiders and caught three passes for 45 yards in the regular season finale win over the Cleveland Browns.
Heyward aligned in different spots, usually as a “Y-off,” a tight end aligned off the ball, or stood up in the slot, the “F” tight end Faulkner referred to. With Watt’s departure, it sounds like there will be more snaps for Heyward to line up as a fullback but he’s apparently still in the tight end room. Regardless, Faulkner isn’t too concerned about who his positional coach is.
“That’s the beautiful thing about Connor. He’s a Swiss Army knife and it’s our job to put him in favorable situations where he can do his thing.”
If Pittsburgh can be the offense it wants to be, Heyward will have a role. He can catch passes in the flat off bootlegs, he can make plays down the seam, he can cut block the backside defender on zone runs. There won’t be a tremendous amount of volume, don’t expect him to catch 50 passes this year, but he should better his offensive production compared to a year ago while serving as a core special teamer.
