Steelers A to Z: Standout 2024 suggests Cameron Heyward a seemingly ageless wonder

Editor’s note: From now until reporting day to training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2025 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 12 and July 23. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

DT CAMERON HEYWARD

Experience/age: 15th season, 36

Contract status: $19.65 million cap hit in 2025, signed through 2026

The past: As if Heyward needed an encore, his performance as a 35-year-old last season put him well in the conversation for best Steelers player of his generation as well as among the best Steelers since the turn of the most recent century. Of course, there’s one title in franchise lore Heyward is vying for that he doesn’t want: best Steelers player to have never won a Super Bowl.

Drafted in 2011’s first round three months after the team’s most recent Super Bowl appearance, Heyward has played in just one postseason victory. But he’s been named first-team AP NFL All Pro four times (once additionally landing on the second team) and has been on the AFC Pro Bowl roster seven of the past eight seasons. He was 28 years old before his first Pro Bowl or All Pro honor and 34 when 17 months ago he was given the Walter Payton NFL man of the year award.

Steelers DT Cameron Heyward after the loss to the Ravens pic.twitter.com/mnl498OI7Z

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) December 22, 2024

2025 outlook: After expressing displeasure with his contract status enough last summer to get one last extension, Heyward proved many wrong with one of his best seasons — eight sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 11 batted-down passes, 20 QB hits. The contract Heyward signed days before last season began was structured in such a way that the Steelers could have gotten out of the deal this offseason if the aging process accelerated and Heyward’s play tumbled.

Well, there were no thoughts of that from the Steelers’ end this spring; they will happily compensate him the almost $15 million in cash that he’s due in 2025. Heyward still is the best player on the Steelers’ defensive line, perhaps as important as ever following the offseason release of veterans Larry Ogunjobi and Montravius Adams. Heyward and Keeanu Benton are the starters — but Heyward is tasked with helping to mentor first-round pick Derrick Harmon. It is the Steelers’ hope that Harmon is Heyward’s heir apparent as the dominant lead dog on the D-line… but then again, that assumes Heyward ever needs to be replaced. Father Time is undefeated, but Heyward seems to be pushing him to the brink.