Report: Steelers DE Cam Heyward holding out of voluntary workouts, OTAs with contract extension up in the air

The Pittsburgh Steelers are having voluntary workouts without Cam Heyward who is looking for a new contract. According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, the star defensive lineman has not attended the voluntary offseason workouts and does not plan to attend OTAs as he seeks a contract extension. Fowler said Heyward, a long-time team captain, has never missed an offseason program. He is set to be a free agent in 2025.

Heyward, 35, has been a productive player for the Steelers, recording the most defensive stops since 2019 with 242 and has the third-most sacks among interior rushers during that span with 56.5, per ESPN. Fowler also said that Heyward plans to play several more years and is healthy from last year’s core muscle injury.

In 2023, Heyward missed six games after tearing a groin muscle in Week 1. He returned to the lineup to play the Steelers’ final 10 games and finished with 33 tackles and two sacks. After the Steelers lost to the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs, Heyward talked about his desire to continue playing.

Cam Heyward has no plans of stepping away from football

“Of course, I want to play, in my mind, I want to play more than just one more season,” Heyward said in January. “I’ve just got to get healthy first. We talk about coming back from injury, I was told at the time it was a 12-week process, and we came back in six weeks. I fought the doctors every week. … I just wanted to put my hand in that pile. But the flip side of that is I put my body through a lot of pain this year. It was getting me to the stadium and go from there, but I can’t be doing that year in and year out.”

In February, Heyward, who won the NFL Man of the Year award last season, revealed he had surgery. On X (formerly known as Twitter), Heyward wrote: “Done doing stuff on 1 leg that guys were doing on 2 legs lol. Can’t wait to get back to myself. … I pushed myself in rehab to play and it wasn’t like anything was torn, but putting your body through the riggers of playing NFL football the way I do, there was no way to catch back up. I just wanted to be back with my teammates, I’m happy I did come back and I don’t regret it.”