It’s hard to imagine Cameron Heyward not playing for the Steelers. By next year, he might be.
“I have talked to my wife, and we know the reality, and we have had those talks, and she said it could be fun to play somewhere else,” Heyward said this week, via Mark Kaboly of TheAthletic.com. “If that is what is needed to be done, then so be it.”
Heyward added this possibility, which will make fans of the black and gold a little green: “I still have family in Cleveland . . . my wife is from Cleveland. We will see. I am not trying to think about all that right now.”
The comments come a week after Heyward, a first-round pick in 2011, said he wanted to be a “one-helmet guy.”
Heyward stayed away from a large chunk of the offseason program as he tried to get an extension on a contract that pays $16 million this year. With or without a new deal from the Steelers, he won’t be calling it quits after 2024.
“I don’t even know which way to even lean,” Heyward said. “We will see what happens. But I can assure you this: I will be playing in 2025, I will tell you that.”
If there’s another team that will give Heyward what he wants now, why not force the issue? Coach Mike Tomlin often says, “We want volunteers, not hostages.” At some point, Heyward should consider whether there’s a team that will volunteer to trade for him — and to pay him — if he decides to accelerate the timetable to add a second helmet.
