Cameron Heyward received a lot of disrespect entering the 2024 season because of a combination of his age and coming off a major injury in 2023. He has left very little doubt more than halfway through this season that he is still the same player, and it would appear his opponents are feeling every bit of that on the field.
“There was a guy out there, o-lineman, he was getting a little bit upset that he was getting hold calls against him,” Heyward said of an unnamed Ravens lineman via his Not Just Football podcast on YouTube. “And then I stopped him in the run game and he was just like, ‘Oh, you still got it?’ And I was like, ‘I wasn’t looking for your say so to say I still got it. Like bro, you’re gonna be dealing with this all game. So don’t run from that.'”
It was one of the chippiest meetings between the two teams in a number of years. Even if that may sound like a compliment of Heyward’s game, it was probably meant more as a slight to his age and his impending decline.
Through 10 games this season, Heyward has 39 total tackles with six tackles for loss, 15 QB hits, five sacks, and five passes defensed. His last first-team All-Pro season he had 16 QB hits and 10 sacks in 17 games. He is very likely to post a career high in QB hits and has an outside chance at hitting the double-digit sack mark for the fourth time in his career.
The Steelers gave him a new three-year contract before the season, and it’s already looking like that deal was a complete bargain, even though many thought the Steelers might have overpaid at the time.
He had multiple examples like this throughout the Ravens game but look at Heyward’s power in his initial punch to shock FB Patrick Ricard back and scrape down the line for a tackle.
Heyward posted on social media after one of his offseason surgeries that he was tired of doing things on one leg that most people are doing on two. It seems like he is fully healthy, and every bit of his power is back.
Whoever the aforementioned Ravens o-lineman was, he probably wasn’t the first to have that thought about Heyward this season, and he probably won’t be the last.
