Mike Florio believes the Pittsburgh Steelers could have a tough time coming to a resolution on DL Cam Heyward’s contract. Appearing on 93.7 The Fan Wednesday, Florio wondered if the Steelers will offer a long-term contract.
“Anytime there’s a Steelers player that isn’t happy with this contract, my first thought is we want volunteers, not hostages….” Florio told hosts Andrew Fillipponi and Chris Mueller. “So when you get in a situation like that where you have a guy who’s not happy with his contract, and maybe he wants to go somewhere else, and I can’t imagine Cam Heyward playing for anyone but the Steelers. But I think of we want volunteers, not hostages.”
In this situation, “volunteers, not hostages” doesn’t fit, considering Heyward wants to remain a Steeler. He doesn’t want out and to go somewhere else. He doesn’t want to spend his final NFL season playing in Green Bay and dealing with the logistics of moving and the impact on his family. Do they move with him or stay back in the city? Does he buy a house or rent an apartment? These are all the normal questions that pop up when there’s a big life change.
And Heyward likely wants to be on that short list of players who were Steelers their entire career. Ben Roethlisberger, Hines Ward, Joe Greene, and Troy Polamalu are team legends. There is something special about being able to say you played for one team the entire time without the caveat of “except for that one year in Seattle” (see Franco Harris) or “that end in Kansas City” (see Mike Webster).
But it’s unclear what Heyward is searching for. As Dave Bryan has outlined, the Steelers could do a “no new money” extension and not guarantee any future earnings beyond 2024. They would convert most of his base salary into a signing bonus and tack on two more seasons of non-guaranteed money. Or Heyward could be looking for a raise with an extension, additional money on top of this year’s salary. But the Steelers may want to let his season play out with Heyward being 35 years old and coming off groin surgery.
“It’s not an easy situation, and I’m sure the Steelers, especially with a key player like that, you want to try to make him happy. You want wanna try to work it out. But you got a broader salary cap landscape to deal with. You gotta fit enough guys under that…it’s tough to give him a major raise at this stage of his career.”
For now, Heyward is away from practices. He’ll likely appear for mandatory minicamp in mid-June, though his time would be spent standing on the sideline instead of practicing. The next line in the sand will come by training camp. If he doesn’t have a new deal by then, will he hold in? If so, would he do it throughout all of training camp? By then, it would become a meaningful storyline heading into the new season and could impact his performance early in the year. At the least, this story is likely to drag on into next month.
