While Cam Heyward’s contract is likely to be restructured sometime this offseason, reducing his large 2024 cap hit, don’t expect him to take a pay cut. Appearing on the latest episode of his Not Just Football podcast, Heyward addressed his future, confirming he’s not retiring. He’s not playing less money, either.
“I bust my butt rehab. Doing everything,” Heyward said, commenting of the difficulty of his season. “I gotta let things calm down. Screw the people who keep talking about me getting a pay cut.”
He then proceeded to delve into his post-2023 plans, fully intending to play in 2024 and hopefully beyond next season. Of his 13 years, 2023 was arguably his most challenging. Attempting to pace himself in the summer after injuring his groin the first day of training camp, hoping St. Vincent rest would heal him before the regular season. It didn’t. Heyward fully told his groin in Week One against the San Francisco 49ers, requiring surgery and a difficult rehab.
True to his word, Heyward returned earlier than expected, beating his timeline by over a month, and suiting up for the team’s Week Nine contest against the Tennessee Titans. He toughed out the rest of the season, still solid against the run but lacking the explosion to generate his patented power on his bull rush.
Turning 35 in May, Heyward has more seasons behind than ahead of him. But there’s no indication the Steelers will push him to retirement. Owed a $16 million base salary next year, some have speculated he could follow Ben Roethlisberger and take a $5 million pay cut in addition to extending out his contract. Clearly, Heyward doesn’t plan on taking less.
So how do the Steelers create cap space? With a true or voidable year extension, they can reduce his base salary, turn that money into a signing bonus, and spread it over the length of the deal. A true extension is more likely, the Steelers generally against voidable years with the exception of the COVID year where a cap contraction forced all teams to quickly adjust.
Dave Bryan discussed scenarios on Wednesday’s Terrible Podcast and will have a cap review in the coming days. While this is just one scenario, the Steelers could reduce Heyward’s base salary down to $1.75 million, turning the majority of his salary into a bonus. Under a two-year extension, that would reduce his cap hit by $9.5 million.
Of course, that’s just one example. There’s many ways to re-work his deal. But this scenario, a restructure and extension, would reduce his cap hit without taking a dime out of his pocket. The downside is a larger future cap hit in future years but as the salary cap increases, the percentage of that cap charge will decrease. And if Heyward is able to play past 2024, then it makes sense to give him a deal anyway.
Point is. When Heyward’s agent, Omar Khan, and “cap/contract guy” Cole Marcoux get together this offseason, a pay cut isn’t on the table. At least not on Heyward’s side. And it was always doubtful Pittsburgh would take money out of his pocket when this restructure option is on the table.
Catch the full episode below.
