Steelers 2-a-days: Is DT Cameron Heyward ageless? Is TE Connor Heyward a ‘slash’ fullback?

Editor’s note: From the end of minicamp through the day the team reports to training camp at Saint Vincent College, the Trib will be running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, assessing each player’s outlook for the 2023 season. The breakdown will go through the roster in mostly-alphabetical order, (at least) two per day, between June 16 and July 26. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

DT CAMERON HEYWARD

Experience: 13^th season

Contract status: $22.26 million cap hit in 2023, signed through 2024

2023 outlook: For the first time since 2018, last season Cameron Heyward was not named to an AP NFL All Pro team. Is that the first preliminary sign that Heyward at age 34 is — finally — entering the inevitable decline phase of his career that every football player eventually does? Or was it just a blip, a voting anomaly in which four other NFL interior defensive linemen (two each on the first and second All Pro teams) happened to beat Heyward out in the subjective tally?

It’s difficult to quantify or objectively measure the relative contributions of defensive tackles. But Heyward had the second-most sacks in a season of his career (10½), and his Pro Football Focus grade was the third-best of his career. Heyward was the best player on the front line of the defensive unit that allowed the 10^th-fewest points and was in the top half of yardage allowed in the NFL.

On top of that, Heyward has been incredibly durable — he hasn’t missed a game because of injury in any of the past six seasons. And on the verge of being a team co-captain for the ninth consecutive season, Heyward’s value to the Steelers extends beyond the field.

At some point, age will catch up to Heyward. Will it be 2023? It seems as if the question has been asked every offseason — and yet Heyward keeps playing like a defensive lineman in his prime.

TE CONNOR HEYWARD

Experience: 2^nd season

Contract status: $908,806 cap hit in 2023, signed through 2025

2023 outlook: For a player whose background was as a running back until his fifth college year, Heyward looked remarkably comfortable as an NFL tight end during his 2022 rookie season. From training-camp practices through the games, that Heyward so well fit the part as a pro tight end — at just 6 feet tall, no less — is a testament to his athleticism and football IQ.

Though he was a special-teams workhorse from Week 1, Heyward’s assimilation into the offense was relatively gradual but built to a crescendo in that by December he scored his first career touchdown and was appearing in roughly one-fifth of the Steelers’ offensive snaps over the final six games of the season. His hands looked polished, the routes crisp (albeit in small sample sizes of 81 routes run and 15 targets, per PFF). Though the blocking needs work, Heyward’s proverbial arrow is pointing up in regards to earning a more prominent role in the offense for Year 2.

But… complicating that outlook for Heyward was the selection of Darnell Washington in the third round of the draft. The Steelers also kept each of the two tight ends who were above Heyward on the depth chart last season — Pat Freiermuth and Zach Gentry. It might be difficult for Heyward to get on the field on offense too often.

That’s where a role as a fullback comes in. The Steelers did not keep their incumbent fullback (Derek Watt). While Monte Pottebaum is headed to camp as an undrafted rookie, Heyward took reps at fullback over the summer. Perhaps via that spot, H-back, traditional in-line tight end and even split out wide, Heyward can be deployed in various ways offensively this season.

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