LATROBE, PA (93.7 The Fan) – Although he said he was going to take it day-to-day, there was no hold out or hold in with Cam Heyward during the first Steelers training camp practice on Thursday at St. Vincent College. You listen to the Steelers general manager, he seems pretty optimistic.
Heyward said it was hard to not take the stuff said about his contract or about him personally during the offseason. He got a little testy on social media, but as mad as he may have been. Or as much as he believes he should have a new contract, he shows up.
Two weeks into voluntary work, after the rarity of missing non-mandatory practices, Heyward arrived and participated in drills. He even posed for a picture with Mike Tomlin as a gesture of goodwill.
At least after day one of training camp, Heyward also isn’t going to do what some of his teammates have done when looking for a new contract in coming to camp practices, but not participating in team drills. Heyward was out there and while he said he reserves the opportunity to change his mind, it’s football time for the Steelers captain.
The 35-year-old said his groin injury, which severely limited him last season, has healed and he was able to get some good reps in on Thursday. He wants to just put his mind to that, if he can, and get this team back to somewhere it hasn’t been since he was in his 20s, a playoff win.
“I’m going to focus on being the best player I can be and controlling what I can control,” Heyward said Thursday. “This team needs my leadership, my production and I look forward to doing it.”
A captain for much of his time with the Steelers, Heyward said it’s a motivator to have doubters, whether that’s people in the organization or outside. He wants to ‘shut everybody up’.
He also wants to only play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“It’s my goal, but not everybody thinks like that,” Heyward said after practice Thursday. “We’ll see what happens. I want to be here, but a lot of football to be played this season and other seasons.”
Asked early in his group interview about the confidence he will get a deal done, he was asked again after other reporters joined in late.
“Y’all keep asking about the confidence, I not going to go either way with that,” Heyward said. “I can’t control that. I’m not going to get my hopes up either way. The offseason you can dwell on it. You can’t do anything about it. The thing I can control is I can be productive. I can be healthy.”
“If they believe in me, so be it. If they don’t, go somewhere else.”
He wants to play two more years after the 2024 season. You read the room when talking with Steelers GM Omar Khan, it appears it will get done. Khan said as an outlier when his news conference began that he wasn’t going to talk any specific contracts. First question, ‘what about Cam Heyward’?
“I’m not going to talk about a specific negotiation, but, you know, I think Cam’s got a lot of football ahead of him still. And I’ll leave it at this.”
“I expect him to be here for years to come.”
That doesn’t help Omar’s leverage, but tells you what the team still thinks of their 2011 first-round pick and second all-time sack leader.
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