As a fifth-round pick, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Yahya Black already has a leg up on most of his fellow rookie defensive linemen across the NFL thanks to the presence of an All-Pro and future Hall of Famer Cameron Heyward within his own position group.
With Heyward, Black — along with fellow rookie Derrick Harmon — has a built-in player-coach, one who has done it at the highest level for years and can help teach the young pieces the tricks of the trade, while also showing them how to take care of their body and prepare throughout the week to be ready for game days.
Heyward can be an endless source of knowledge for the young players in the defensive line room, who are being counted on to be the next wave of Steelers greats in the trenches defensively.
But for Black, who appeared on The Christian Kuntz Podcast that published Thursday morning, he’s not tapping into Heyward’s vast knowledge just yet.
“I’ve really just been watching. I like watching demeanor and how they practice. I feel like that’s the best way to learn how to really fit in and grasp the concept of what we’re doing here,” Black said of watching Heyward and learning from him, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “I haven’t talked to Cam as much as I should and like really pick his brain about it. But just watching him, way he attacks things and like goes about his life, it’s amazing.
“It’s amazing to watch.”
Rookies have a lot thrown at them right away with their new team, both on and off the field. There’s a playbook to learn, terminology to grasp, and the speed of the game to adjust to just on the field alone. Football is a full-time thing, too, with no school commitments overhead, too. It’s a true job now.
And off the field there’s the stress of adjusting to a new city, finding a place to live, figuring out where things are, and trying to fit into a new locker room after a number of years (typically) in the same spot with familiar faces around. It can be a lot. It might be for Black, too, so taking the time to observe and really watch one of the best to ever play the position in franchise history in Heyward is a great starting point for him.
Eventually, the time to pick Heyward’s brain on technique, mentality, preparation, and nutrition will come. Right now, though, Black is observing from a short distance just how Heyward goes about things on a daily basis. Not a bad place to start for the Iowa product, who is expected to be a key rotational piece for the Steelers in 2025 at defensive end, and possibly even nose tackle, especially as he’s gone from trying to model his game after Hall of Famer Jared Allen growing up, to now playing a style of football similar to Heyward with power and technique, rather than finesse.
“[Allen] was a go-getter. He had a motor on him. But now I’m really watching Cam,” Black said. “The stutter-bull [rush]. He’s doing it all, he’s got it in his bag. He gets deep in there. But like, what he’s good at the basics, the fundamentals, like the stuff that’s real.
“And I’m really starting to follow that now.”
With his size, run-defending abilities and versatility to play up and down the line of scrimmage, there’s a lot of promise there for Black. He’s in a talented defensive line room featuring Heyward, Harmon, and Keeanu Benton under the guidance of Karl Dunbar, and seems to be adopting the mantra of “seen, not heard” as a young player trying to find his way in the NFL, all while trying to learn as much as he can from watching Heyward.
Sound plan so far.
Check out the full interview with Yahya Black on The Christian Kuntz Podcast below.
Recommended for you