I'm really having mixed thoughts on the Cam Heyward situation. He's playing on the final year of his contract at 22.4 million his salary accounts for 8.7 percent of the salary cap. He has made comments that he won't take a pay cut. He's just outside of the top 10 paid defensive tackles. He's meant a lot to the team and has been productive for most of his career. But in my mind, he has 2 things going against him. Injuries and age. But I truly believe that Cam and the Steelers need to meet somewhere in the middle on a fair contract for both sides. Productivity for defensive tackles starts to fall off in their early 30's. This is like a topic that a huge part of me doesn't want to bring up because I really like Cam. But this is the NFL. Not for long league and as players age their productivity decreases.
I'm still in the camp of extend Heyward. He has been playing at an incredible level the last few years even in his 30s and was only held back last year due to his groin injury. He has 0 incentive to take a pay cut this season and I would not be surprised at all by 3 more years of high quality play. I would extend him for 2 years with an out after the 2nd year (aka contract through 2026 season with an out after 2025) mainly in case of serious injury degrading his play.
Great teams need great leaders and he is one of the most solid leaders we have on the team. If we're trying to make a push in the next few years (even with the question marks at QB) then I think we need a presence like his on and off the field. I think his extension would be something like $18 million per year. That's a lot for a DT at his age, but also decently less than the top of the market contracts.
I would not extend him.
He’s been a great player and person for a long time. His leadership is fantastic by all accounts. Football is a young man’s game especially for a grueling position like defensive tackle and Cam will drop off of the cliff at some point.
Make him a coach after this year. I mean that. If he wants to move on then so be it. We can all think of great players that hung on for too long. Let’s not tarnish Cam in the same way.
It's possible that he has reached his cliff, I just saw how he kept improving over the last 5 years and I think last year was just a fluke injury. It could be that he will just get injured more often now and that will stop his domination, but my optimistic view is that last year was a fluke, similar to TJ tearing his pec. That Cam will come back next year as a beast and has 2-3 more years of greatness.
I think there's 0% chance that he'd instantly transition from player to coach, he would just leave for another team. In his year 32 and 33 seasons he was even better than at 29, 30, and 31. With Benton coming off his rookie season, I think this could be Cam's best season since 2017, and he's made the pro-bowl and all-pro teams since then...