Selected a captain for perhaps the last time, Steelers DE Cam Heyward wants to prove doubters wrong

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Cam Heyward is running out of time in his playing career. No one is more acutely aware of that than the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle.

There aren't many players who stick around 14 years as Heyward has. Even fewer who have done it while playing one of the most physically demanding jobs on the field. And even fewer still have been selected a captain 10 times, as Heyward was on Monday.

It's an honor Heyward doesn't take for granted. That's simply not his way, especially not following an offseason that has seen the NFL's reigning Walter Payton Man of the Year deal with the kind of uncertainty he's been able to avoid.

The 35-year-old endured an injury-filled 2023 in which he admittedly was far from his best. He's also entering the final season of his contract, and while Heyward says he wants to keep playing, there's a chance that whatever comes next might not happen in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers as a general rule don't negotiate contracts during the season, meaning the deadline for the team to work something out with the six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro is fast approaching ahead of Sunday's opener in Atlanta.

While Heyward avoided any unnecessary drama during training camp by opting to not hold out (or the increasingly popular hold-in for that matter) and has repeatedly stressed he wants to retire in Pittsburgh, in some ways the decision is out of his hands.

If it happens, great. If not, his goals for 2024 will not change in the slightest. The Steelers have yet to reach a Super Bowl with his familiar No. 97 in the lineup, and he's heard the doubters who believe he's washed.

“I’ve had to eat (criticism) and absorb it,” Heyward said. “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion, but I want to make their opinion wrong, and I think I just look forward to playing good football.”

If Pittsburgh wants to end a playoff victory drought that stretches back to 2016, Heyward needs to resemble the disruptive force he was until he tweaked a groin injury in last year's opener against San Francisco. He underwent surgery and made his way back by midseason, but he wasn't the same.

Heyward finished with just two sacks — his lowest in a season since becoming a starter in 2013 — and struggled to generate the power necessary to fend off the double teams that are a part of the gig when you play along the interior defensive line.

He believes he's in a better place as 2024 begins, and doesn't need to be reminded about the lone hole on his resume.

“I kind of laugh when people say, ‘Oh, this guy deserves to win a Super Bowl or anything,’” he said. “The only way you deserve it is you earn it, and so that’s always been my motto and for the guys in the locker room, we got to earn it week in and week out."

Pittsburgh's best hope of earning it this season is having a defense that includes stars at every level — from Heyward to linebacker T.J. Watt to safety Minkah Fitzpatrick — complement a new-look offense led by Russell Wilson, who like Heyward, Watt and special teams ace Miles Killebrew was selected as a captain for the 2024 season.

Heyward served as one of the chief recruiters who helped lure Wilson to the Steelers after two largely forgettable years in Denver. The two FaceTimed shortly after Pittsburgh's courtship of Wilson began, with Heyward sharing what it means to play for one of the most storied franchises in the league.

“I think he understood the history that was already set before here, and then the challenge that comes along with being a Pittsburgh Steeler because you’re not just playing for the guys in here, you’re playing for the guys who’ve already played before,” Heyward said. “So I think he really aligned with that.”

It's something that Heyward has understood from the moment the Steelers drafted him in the first round in 2011. He was born in Pittsburgh, where his father, former NFL fullback Craig “Ironhead” Heyward, starred in college.

There have been few Steelers since the turn of the millennium that have taken playing in the city to heart more than Heyward, which makes the idea of him playing elsewhere so odd.

Yet it remains a possibility, at least at the moment. Heyward is doing his best to tune out the business side of things. In some ways, that is out of his control. All he can do at the moment is what he's done for a decade-plus: be a leader on the field and in the locker room.

Only three players in franchise history have been selected a captain by their teammates 10 times: Ben Roethlisberger, former guard Sam Davis and Heyward. It's heady company to be sure, something he doesn't take for granted.

“It’s an honor to be selected to represent a group of men, but one, it’s not just me walking around in front of a podium (to talk to the media),” he said. “It’s listening to the guys being an extension (of them) and trying to represent them as much as possible.”

Even if this time might very well be the last time.

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Will Graves, The Associated Press