At 36 years old and heading into his 15th NFL season, Cam Heyward has aged like a fine bottle of wine. Recently, he was ranked by ESPN as the No. 10 defensive tackle entering the 2025 season, an improvement from his honorable mention the year before.
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Despite Heyward’s greatness as a defensive option, especially last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers have yet to use him in an offensive package. And due to comments from Mike Tomlin, it doesn’t sound like it’ll ever happen under his watch.
Heyward expanded on this, explaining how offensive coordinator Arthur Smith once tried to sneak him in on offense.
“Arthur Smith had brought me in and was like, ‘Hey, we got to sneak you in on offense,’” Heyward revealed on Not Just Football. However, it wasn’t long before Tomlin shot down the idea.
“And Mike was like, ‘We ain’t doing that. That’s not happening,’” he added.
It’s not like it’s a far-fetched idea. Defensive tackle Dontari Poe famously tossed a touchdown on Sunday Night Football for the Chiefs in 2016. He caught one later on in his career as well. Also, JJ Watt caught 3 touchdowns on offense in his career.
They’re the two players Heyward immediately thought of when the idea of him playing a snap on offense was shot down.
“I’ve seen JJ Watt catch all of those passes for all those years. I’m like, damn, I can’t get one? I can’t get a Dontari Poe in the endzone? Where do I fall on the totem pole in getting into the endzone on offense?” he questioned.
Well, it seems like Heyward is pretty low on the totem pole, and rightfully so. He is a defender, after all. But teams usually like to have a little fun from time to time and reward their big men with touchdowns.
Nevertheless, it’s not like Tomlin doesn’t have anything planned for Heyward. In fact, he has an emergency route ready for field goals in a “break glass” situation.
“Well, one thing we always do for field goals we have to simulate if everything goes haywire, you get a fire call. I have to run a route, and they never throw me the ball,” Heyward shared.
“What’s the route?” his co-host asked.
“I can’t tell you that,” the four-time ALL-Pro shot back.
So, we’ll just have to wait and see what that emergency route looks like. The sad part is, unless a special-teams blunder occurs, we may never get to see Heyward catching a pass. It’s a shame because we love watching big, burly linemen sneaking into the end zone.
Let’s hope something goes haywire for the Steelers on an extra point this season so we can see that in action.
