Despite continuing to make his mark at 36, Cam Heyward refuses to settle. The Steelers’ defensive anchor believes he has more to give—and another level to reach—this season.
He was asked Friday how he’s feeling in Week 12 of his 15th NFL season.
“Feeling good. I’m kind of more pissed at my play. I feel like I can play a lot better,” Heyward said via 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “I know everybody’s like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s doing his thing,’ but I feel like I can still take it up another notch. And the way I look at it is, we got seven weeks to prove that we belong and prove that I can play a lot better.”
Why might he be pissed? For one, he’s extremely unlikely to hit some of his incentives in the sweetened contract the Steelers gave him in September. After a lengthy hold-in, Heyward probably didn’t get the revised contract he coveted, and now he may not even see the incentive money they tacked on. Here are the conditions for a total possible incentive of $3.2 million.
1. $1.6 million for recording eight sacks *and* the Steelers making the playoffs
2. $1.6 million for recording 11.5 sacks *and* the Steelers winning a playoff game
A year after recording eight sacks and making first-team All-Pro, Heyward betting on another eight-sack season seemed reasonable. At just 1.5 sacks through 10 games, he would need to go on an absolute tear to even hit the first $1.6 million bonus. It would take roughly a sack per game over the final seven to hit. Heyward bet on himself, and chances are good that his bet won’t pay off.
The sacks have fallen off, but Heyward is still having a very solid season. He is on pace to have roughly the same number of total tackles as last year, and he’s as disruptive as ever deflecting passes at the line of scrimmage. After having 11 passes defensed last year, Heyward has six so far in 2025. He also has a forced fumble this season, which he did not do a year ago.
By raw pressure numbers, he has 2.8 per game this season, which is down from 3.5 last year. The Steelers have also faced several offenses that get rid of the ball in under 2.5 seconds, which is where the pass deflections come into play. And this kind of vet savvy doesn’t show up in the box score, at least not for Heyward. He enables his teammates to shine.
Cam Heyward doing it again. Sly “hug” with his outside hand on the Bengals LG to make it harder for him to switch off to a looping Herbig.
Herbig rushes in free & combines with Watt for the pressure. Flacco throws it right to Dugger.
Heyward with the ultimate vet savvy. https://t.co/f96Eag7cHA pic.twitter.com/Ua7mnYmTIs
— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) November 19, 2025
If Heyward believes there is another notch to his game this season, I am not going to be the one to doubt him. He has at least 1.6 million reasons to make it happen.
