The 2011 NFL Draft was loaded with talent, and particularly defensive line talent. We all talk about the 2025 draft as being loaded with DL talent, but there were 12 who went in the first round that year and Cam Heyward was the last of them at No. 31. During today’s episode of Not Just Football With Cam Heyward, he revealed a brief list of teams that told him they would draft him if he fell. A couple of them ended up passing, and thank goodness for that.
“At this point, everybody has who they’re drafting and most of the teams have already, they’ve made the big boards. They’ve talked to the teams in front of them. They know who they’re selecting,” Heyward said before being asked which teams told him they’d draft him in 2011. “Jets, Ravens, I know Green Bay was interested but they were the pick behind.”
The Jets were picking at No. 30 and took Muhammad Wilkerson. He was a fine player in his own right with two second-team All-Pro selections, but he had nowhere near the sustained success of Heyward. The Ravens took CB Jimmy Smith at No. 27. He had a few solid seasons mixed in and had a lengthy career overall having just retired in 2021. Again, he had nowhere near the career of Heyward.
Only one of those three players is heading to the Hall of Fame one day, and he ended up with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Can you imagine a world where Heyward was terrorizing the Steelers for the last 14 seasons instead of being the cornerstone of their defense?
The Packers defeated the Steelers in the Super Bowl the year before and thus didn’t have access to Heyward. It’s very likely he would have been picked with the very next selection had the Steelers not drafted him.
“You start to wonder like, man, the people in front of me, are they even doing their homework on these guys?” Heyward said. “I have a lot of respect for the guys that went in front, but some of them, some head scratchers.”
Several of the d-linemen who went ahead of Heyward had nice careers, but some of them didn’t. Of the 12 who were drafted in the first round, Cameron Jordan, J.J. Watt and Heyward ended up being in a league of their own. All three are likely to end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday.
Heyward warned fans to not read too much into media chatter this close to the draft. If the players are being fed incorrect information as Heyward experienced, then you can only imagine what kind of smokescreens and shell games are making their way on down to the media and fans.
