Cameron Heyward ended his very brief holdout after the first two weeks of voluntary OTA practices and returned for Week 3. It doesn’t change anything about his contract negotiations, but he told the media that he felt like it was important for him to be there. He has been a team captain every season since 2015, and he takes those responsibilities seriously. There was a narrative that emerged a couple weeks ago via Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Steelers insider Gerry Dulac that Heyward had not communicated his holdout plans with the team, to which he took offense and fired back on X refuting those claims.
On his most recent episode of Not Just Football on Youtube, Heyward further cleared the air with the level of his communications with the team while he was gone.
“I talked to Mike T. last week,” Heyward said. “I talked to multiple teammates, and I said I was gonna be back in June, and so, yeah, the communication has been there.”
His co-host, Hayden Walsh, then poked fun at the narrative of Heyward being incommunicado, and Heyward told him to stop being petty and move on.
So not only was he communicating with Mike Tomlin, but he kept some of his teammates in the loop. Keeanu Benton even said at the beginning of last week that Heyward is still “heard as a captain,” and that he has been engaged from afar, asking questions about the happenings at OTAs and how he can help.
“My focus is on the team, and I will never make that something that I have to question,” Heyward said. “I will put my energy and effort into this team, and it was a good day.”
The notion of holding out, even at voluntary activities, is going to be seen as an issue to a certain portion of the fan base. Tomlin more or less endorsed the holdout and said it gives them an opportunity to see guys that need to be seen in practice. Heyward, a veteran entering his 14th season, does not need reps at OTAs. There isn’t going to be a whole lot of learning on his part, especially with the coaches relevent to him all still with the team.
T.J. Watt has been on vacation in Austria, missing some of the OTA practices, and nobody has made a big deal out of that. I don’t think it is fair to fault Heyward for trying to secure the last few seasons of his career.
This could potentially extend to a hold-in at mandatory minicamp and training camp if no contract agreement is reached, but he would still be present and helping his teammates in any way he can.
