U mad, bro?: Steelers fans fatigued of Cam Heyward's hold-in, dubious of the defense's hype

What I’m really concerned about is that he and the rest of the defense showed us who “they really were” on the field over the final five games of last season.

What do you think, “bob the builder?” Can they fix it?

Eh, I wouldn’t be so sure.

Timothy isn’t happy about Heyward either.

“When you play defense for a Steeler team who gives up 35 points a game in the postseason, signs a new contract with a gray beard, THEN has a good year and refuses to play unless he gets MORE money, makes me say ‘Cam who?’ Thank you for your service, good luck with your future endeavors!!”

My guess is you won’t be wishing him any luck at all if he eventually pushes himself onto Cleveland’s roster like he “joked” about doing last year. 

“Jock235” emails with a response to Mike Tomlin’s claim that this Steelers defense has the potential to be “historic.”

“It seems to me that if you play a 3-4 defense, it starts right in the middle of the field. The Steelers never replaced Casey Hampton and have been playing a bastard 3-4 ever since. When the other guys get serious about running the ball late in the season, if you don’t have an immovable object in front of their center, you have to load up too much to stop it and you’re totally vulnerable.”

I’d also argue that they never properly replaced Ryan Shazier. Nor do they have a clear-cut replacement right now for Minkah Fitzpatrick.

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• Mark Madden: Cam Heyward's hold-in might be over, but his image took a hit

A person named @GhostDorkness sent this message in response to my recent column about Mason Rudolph. 

“Most popular guy in sports is the backup QB.”

Maybe that’s why Cleveland has three of them.

Actually, come to think of it, at this stage of Joe Flacco’s career, you could argue they actually have four.

Rich has thoughts on Rudolph too. 

“If all goes according to plan, he won’t touch the field this year. Yet Tomlin in his infinite wisdom holds out the guys who will play week 1 and let them use that as their warmup game. I don’t get it. The starters should play 3 series then out.”

A couple things, Rich:

• Everything rarely goes to plan for the Steelers. That’s why they haven’t won a playoff game since 2016.

• In most seasons, the Steelers’ offense needs much more than one week to warm up.

• The longer they stay in street clothes, the longer they can play the “they are just working off the rust” card.

Finally, this social media user responded to my complaints about how clunky first virtual measurement of a spotted ball was at Acrisure Stadium last week.

AI already knows the steelers are #shortofthesticks.

— RB7501 (@RB75012) August 16, 2025

Indeed. When it comes to Steelers play-calling, I’ll embrace any type of intelligence — artificial or human — at this point.