Season Two of Pittsburgh Steelers DL Cameron Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast debuted on Wednesday, and during the podcast Cameron talked about his little brother, Connor. Cameron thinks Connor will have an expanded role as he enters his second NFL season and can be a guy who creates mismatches.
“I think Connor, they didn’t want to overload a first-year player. Now, I think in his second year he feels more comfortable,” Cameron Heyward said. “He has more grasp of the playbook, and they’re gonna ask him to do some different stuff. During the offseason this year, I saw him going into a lot of different meetings and not having the defined role of just the fullback or just the tight end. But through that, it creates matchups, mismatches, and he’s gonna really excel when he gets the hold of this.”
Cameron said that two players Connor should emulate are San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, widely regarded as one of the best and most versatile fullbacks in the NFL, and former 49ers and Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker. Walker, at 6-foot-2, 248-pounds, is somewhat similar in size to Heyward and was a guy who, like Cameron thinks Connor could do, created a lot of mismatches in the passing game.
Connor was primarily used as a tight end during his rookie season, although he did have two carries. Entering his second year, the expectation was that he’d shift to more of a fullback/H-back role, but OL Kendrick Green has gotten reps at fullback and Connor still has value as a tight end, where he made 12 receptions last year. If he can prove to be a versatile weapon who can do a little bit of both when it comes to blocking and getting a few carries, something he’s done in camp so far, and making catches, he’ll be a useful player for Pittsburgh.
Juszczyk would be a good model for Connor. He gets around 20 receptions a season, along with close to 10 carries. He’s been a Pro Bowl fullback each of the past seven seasons and his versatility in San Francisco’s offense makes him a really valuable tool. Even if the counting stats aren’t great, he’s a player that matters a lot to their offense and he’s someone Connor would do a lot of good watching and trying to emulate.
You can never have enough guys who can move around the offense and do a number of different things, and that’s what I think Connor will be able to do for Pittsburgh’s offense. He’ll see his role expand each year as he continues to get more comfortable with doing a variety of things and could wind up being a player who comes through to create mismatches in key spots.
We’ll get the first taste of what Connor’s role ends up looking like on Friday night when the Steelers take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their first preseason game.
