The Pittsburgh Steelers must have had more siblings on their rosters the past 10 years than any other team, the most notable right now being Cameron Heyward and his little brother, Connor Heyward. Drafted more than a decade earlier, Cameron is always happy to provide Connor whatever shortcuts he can.
“When you first get into this league, you think you’re invincible, and you are quickly reminded that you are not”, he told Jim Jackson on the Rich Eisen Show yesterday. “But I think about taking care of your body, doing the little things off the field, spending time with [Connor], not being the first guy gone. I’m always preaching these things to my little brother. I like to think I’m the CliffsNotes to this for him. I’m giving him every bit of knowledge I’ve got, putting him on a great plan to keep being successful”.
For those unaware, CliffsNotes is a long-running series of study guides for students covering a wide variety of subjects. Frankly, I don’t know if kids these days even use such resources, rather turning to ChatGPT or something. I’m getting old, in case you can’t tell. Old and afraid. But the point is, Cameron Heyward wants to give Connor the answers without learning them all the hard way. But not all the answers, as he went on to say.
“Some of it he’s got to experience for himself. I didn’t always have somebody looking out for my best interests”, the older Heyward said,” so sometimes it’s like, ‘Yeah, you need to experience that moment. It’s gonna make you better’. It’s a balance between the two, but I love seeing the course he’s on, because I think he’s well equipped for it”.
Drafted in the sixth round in 2022, Connor Heyward quickly carved out a special teams role for himself. He contributed offensively here and there, as well. Having experience at both running back and tight end, he can do a little bit of everything at least decently.
Through two seasons, the younger Heyward has 35 catches for 318 yards and 1 touchdown. He also has three rushing attempts for 27 yards across 577 snaps. You might not have noticed by watching, but he played 403 snaps last season. That is a substantial uptick from his rookie season.
Part of the reason he played so much is because TE Pat Freiermuth missed a number of games. However, he played 30 percent or more of the Steelers’ offensive snaps in the majority of their games.
The Steelers clearly had a role for him in the past, and he figures to have one under new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, as well. The big question is if they see fit to move him to fullback on a more permanent basis. At the very least, he probably sees an uptick in his work from out of the backfield this year.
