Pittsburgh Steelers DL Cameron Heyward is currently staying home while the team conducts offseason workouts ahead of OTAs. It’s the first time in his career that he has skipped the voluntary team activity. It’s also the first time the Steelers will hold OTAs while Heyward is recovering from offseason surgery during a contract negotiation.
Entering the final year of his contract at age 35, Heyward reportedly wants an extension from Pittsburgh. Many wanted the Steelers to ask him for a pay cut, which they didn’t, but could they offer him more instead? How they approach it will be a major storyline down the road, potentially, but for now, should we care?
“This is probably gonna go into the summer. I don’t think what’s going on right now is a big deal at all”, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan yesterday with Chris Mueller. “As Cam said himself, they’re voluntary, so he’s not really doing anything that’s out of the ordinary”.
As Fittipaldo pointed out, veterans don’t do much during OTAs. They are “pretty much there for stretching”, he advised, “more coaching the younger players than they are participating”. As a team captain, some are criticizing Heyward on those grounds, but that seems flimsy for mid-May.
While Heyward skipping OTAs may be “a big nothing”, as Fittipaldo says, he does offer that it could turn into something down the road. He said that even skipping mandatory minicamp is not a big deal and that the Steelers would not fine him.
“I would look toward training camp. T.J. Watt did the hold-in, Diontae Johnson did the hold-in. Both those guys were successful, they had a little bit of leverage”, he said, noting that Heyward could follow suit. “That’s probably the more serious thing that would happen, so let’s see what happens in about six weeks. But as far as him not showing up for OTAs, that’s a big nothing”.
In truth, the Steelers have already been through this with Heyward. This isn’t widely recalled, but Heyward did not fully participate during training camp in 2020 when he signed his last contract extension. And we don’t talk about this because training camp was private that year due to the pandemic.
Players have been doing this for a long time, at least when they show up. Changes in the last CBA make it prohibitively expensive for most players seeking a new deal to skip training camp. So the new thing is the “hold-in”, where you show up but don’t participate in drills. As with Watt, you can work on your own, or with Johnson, chop it up with your head coach. But you’re not in the stretch line, not in scrimmages.
“It very much is business”, in other words, Fittipaldo insisted. Yet he suggested the contract talks between the Steelers and Cameron Heyward may not be smooth. He doesn’t believe Pittsburgh wants to do a long-term extension with a 35-year-old player coming off an injury. Not without seeing the goods back in action first, at least.
But as far as OTAs go? Yeah, this is a big, fat nothing, and that’s not a scarce opinion. Most teams don’t have 100 percent attendance at OTAs. Guys like Troy Polamalu used to do their own thing rather than show up. Heyward said on his podcast that he’s doing everything he’s supposed to do on his own. He’s still putting in the work, but business is business. Not that this will get him his new contract, but he’s not volunteering for work without a new deal.
