Cam Heyward still doesn’t have the raise he’s been looking for from his Pittsburgh Steelers, but head coach Mike Tomlin believes his veteran defensive tackle will suit up for this week’s season opener against the New York Jets.
“I’m certainly expecting Cam to play,” Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly news conference, per ESPN. “Cam doesn’t play a lot in team development over the last several years. My job is to get him in and out of Latrobe, and I’ve done my job. And, so, there are no reservations about his participation or his readiness.”
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Tomlin added: “I’m sure he’s champing at the bit.”
That said, the 36-year-old Heyward was coy about his Week 1 availability on Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, “Not Just Football.”
Co-host Hayden Walsh asked Heyward if he’ll be on the field at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
“We’ll see,” Heyward said.
Earlier in the show, following a discussion about running back Jaylen Warren signing an extension with the Steelers, Walsh probed if Heyward had any kind of update on his contract situation.
“Nope,” the defensive captain said. “Nothing to break — nothing to talk about.”
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Heyward is entering his 15th NFL season, all of which he’s played with the Steelers, who took him No. 31 overall out of Ohio State in the 2011 draft.
Last summer, he signed a two-year, $29 million contract extension through the 2026 season. That was before his bounce-back campaign.
After missing six games in 2023 and, subsequently, missing out on the Pro Bowl for the first time in seven seasons, Heyward collected his fourth first-team All-Pro honor of his illustrious career in 2024. In the process, he recorded a career-high 11 passes defended, in addition to tallying 71 total tackles, 12 TFLs and 8 sacks.
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Now, Heyward is pushing for a restructured deal that reflects his 2024 production, along with the reset market for defensive players across the NFL.
On Aug. 7, he began holding in during Steelers training camp. He returned to practice on Aug. 19, even though his contract dispute remained unresolved.
On Aug. 11, he spoke to the media about the hold-in, explaining that he gave the Steelers a heads up last year that he’d want to revisit his contract if he turned in an All-Pro season in 2024.
“It’s hard for me, after the year that I had, to really justify playing at the number I’m playing at,” Heyward said at the time. “I understand I signed a contract last year.
“But to be completely honest with you, when I signed that, I told them, ‘When I have an All-Pro year, expect me to come back.’ … I think everybody kind of giggled a little bit. But in my head, I used it as motivation to go out there and prove it.”
Heyward is currently the NFL’s 23rd-highest-paid defensive tackle by APY, according to Over the Cap. Of the 22 defensive tackles ahead of him on that list, 16 have an APY of at least $20 million. Heyward’s is $14.5 million.
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Notably, Tomlin confirmed Tuesday that rookie defensive tackle Derrick Harmon — whom the Steelers selected out of Oregon No. 21 overall in this year’s draft — will be out Sunday. He’s still recovering from the MCL sprain he suffered during the team’s preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers.
That makes Heyward’s Week 1 availability versus the Jets all the more critical.
This news was originally published on this post .
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