A bit of surprising news dropped on Wednesday night when ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that Pittsburgh Steelers DL Cameron Heyward was not at the team’s voluntary OTAs as he wants a new contract. Heyward is entering the last year of his deal in 2024, and he’s obviously looking for more long-term commitment from the team and likely more money in the 2024 season, as well. During an episode of his Not Just Football podcast, Heyward talked about his decision.
“First of all, it’s voluntary. Let’s get that straight. I’m working out, doing everything,” Heyward said. “I have always attended these, but at this time, it’s just contract negotiations, and I want to be a Pittsburgh Steeler, but we’ll see what happens.”
The “we’ll see what happens” is a little bit ominous there. The Steelers have had some contract negotiations go sour in the past with longtime veterans, including James Harrison and Troy Polamalu, which led to the two of them getting released (although Harrison circled back a few seasons later).
“You gotta do what’s right for you,” Heyward said. “I’m training hard, there’s nothing I’m not doing on and off the field, I’m doing everything possible, and we’ll get there when we get there.”
It’s understandable that Heyward wants more of a commitment from the team, and it likely wouldn’t have gotten to this point if he wasn’t coming off a season where he suffered a core muscle injury that limited him to 11 games. Even when he played, he wasn’t fully 100% and wasn’t the same dominant force that he has been. Given that he’s now 35 years old, there might be some pause from the team. But Heyward is still one of the best defensive linemen in football when healthy, and it’s hard to see the team not getting something done with the six-time Pro Bowler.
Dave Bryan broke down some possible extensions and ways to bump Heyward’s 2024 pay in an article that’s very much worth your time to understand more about the situation, and between now and training camp, it’s likely that the Steelers and Heyward have ironed something out. It’s frankly not a huge deal from anything other than an optics perspective that Heyward isn’t at OTAs. As he said, it’s voluntary, and as an older player and one the team doesn’t want to lose to injury, he likely wouldn’t have participated all that much anyway.
But it is a statement that he’s not attending and points to the idea that the Steelers need to get something done with Heyward in rather short order to prevent the situation from getting messy between the team and their longest-tenured player. It doesn’t sound as if that’s close to happening, but the longer negotiations drag on, the more likely it is that something can go awry. But I still find it hard to see a way that the team doesn’t lock Heyward down in a manner that makes him happy and ready to rebound in 2024.
