As more details surface about the situation between the Pittsburgh Steelers and defensive tackle Cameron Heyward and his contract, the harder it is to defend Heyward’s side in all this. Heyward claims that after he signed a very modest contract extension in the 2024 offseason that gave him no raise and simply added a year, he told the team he’d be back for a raise if he made the Pro Bowl.
Now he’s back, but according to former NFL General Manager Doug Whaley, Heyward and his agents mishandled this situation from the beginning, calling it an “abject failure” on their part.
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“If he walked out the door and said if I make All-Pro I’m going to see you next year,” Whaley told Adam Crowley and Dorin Dickerson. “No. No. No. You are at the bargaining table now. Put that in there now. If you are the rep (for Heyward), you should know the salary cap is going to spike greater than in years past. You know people are going to get signed. You know who are free agents and they are going to sign deals. You can even put it in as an incentive, if he makes All-Pro, his salary goes up to ‘x’.”
Now, Heyward finds him sitting out with almost no leverage to force the Steelers to honor an agreement that sounds like they never agreed to. That’s not to say the Steelers couldn’t shuffle money from his 2026 salary to 2025 because it would be a simple chore and one they have done before. But for whatever reason, they don’t seem compelled to do so, perhaps in anticipation of Heyward retiring at the end of the season.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Former NFL GM with harsh criticism for Steelers DT Cam Heyward