Entering Year 15 in the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward is showing no signs of slowing down, even at 36 years old.
He’s coming off a dominant season in which he earned first-team All-Pro honors, putting together a historic season for an interior defensive lineman at his age. Knowing that, it’s no surprise he was named one of the NFL’s best players 30 years or older by Pro Football Focus Wednesday morning.
Heyward wasn’t alone representing the Steelers either. OLB T.J. Watt was ranked inside the top 10 as well by PFF, even though he is coming off a down season by his elite standards.
In the rankings, Watt landed at No. 2 overall, and Heyward landed at No. 7 as the top 30 players over 30 from Pro Football Focus.
Watt finds himself right behind Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry as the second-best player 30 or older in the NFL.
“Watt showed no signs of decline in 2024, earning an elite 91.7 PFF grade — the second-highest of his career,” PFF’s Dalton Wasserman writes. “He was the NFL’s only defensive lineman to record a 90.0-plus grade in both run defense and as a pass rusher.
“As long as he stays healthy, Watt should remain firmly in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation for the foreseeable future.”
Though the sacks numbers weren’t there, Watt remained an elite player during the 2024 season. He still found a way to impact games, punching the football out time and again. He led the NFL in forced fumbles on the season with six, even while dealing with the frustration of not being able to get to the quarterback consistently due to the continuous chips and slides in protection toward him.
He had just 11.5 sacks and 53 pressures, but he was sound against the run. He did disappear down the stretch after suffering an ankle injury against the Philadelphia Eagles, putting up back-to-back games in Week 18 and the AFC Wild Card Round loss without a single registered stat. But he was quite good for much of the year.
With a bit of a disappointing season, Watt vowed to be more open to move around more defensively pre-snap in 2025, giving offenses a different look in an effort to get him into more favorable matchups like other pass rushers around the league. Hopefully that occurs and Watt gets back to his truly dominant ways that have him on a Hall of Fame pace.
As for Heyward, the 2024 season was an incredible one, considering he was coming off an injury-filled 2023 season that sapped much of his mobility and power. There were questions about his ability to play at an elite level once again in the 2024 season, and those questions only got louder after the Steelers gave him a two-year extension right before the start of the season.
Heyward proved the doubters wrong — and then some.
“Heyward continues to dominate on the interior for Pittsburgh. In 2024, he was the only defensive tackle to rank in the top five in both pass-rushing and run-defense grades,” Wasserman writes. “His overall 90.1 PFF grade was the third-highest of his career, and there’s little evidence to suggest a decline is imminent as he enters his age-36 season.”
Heyward recorded 71 tackles, 8 sacks, 12 tackles for loss, 11 passes defensed and 56 pressures in 2024, finishing as PFF’s No. 1-graded defensive lineman at 90.3 overall.
Heyward’s 8 sacks helped him put up a historic season for a veteran interior defensive lineman. Those 8 sacks are second-most ever by a defensive tackle his age or older, trailing only Hall of Famer Steve McMichael’s 10.5 in 1992.
Along with his 8 sacks, Heyward continued to show off his great power throughout the season, dominating against the run. He was an immovable object in the middle of the Steelers’ defense, one who controlled the line of scrimmage over and over again. He was a menace at the line of scrimmage, getting his hands up in throwing lanes and batting down 11 passes, which is an absurd number for a defensive lineman.
They are getting up there in age and mileage from a football perspective, but Watt and Heyward remain truly dominant, elite players. The Steelers need them to be once again this season, as they will rely heavily on their defense.
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