There were a great deal of questions surrounding Cameron Heyward entering the 2024 season, particularly centered on his health and effectiveness.
Then Heyward answered those questions in emphatic fashion. In Year 15, Heyward was a dominant force. He finished with 8.0 sacks, was an elite run defender and earned first-team All-Pro honors, further cementing his Hall of Fame resume.
Now, entering Year 16 in the NFL and his age-36 season, Heyward is out to prove it again. He doesn’t have many doubts surrounding him this time though as he checks in at No. 30 overall in Pro Football Focus’ Top 50 players rankings ahead of the season.
“Heyward posted yet another elite season in 2024, earning a 90.1 overall defensive grade, his third at that level,” PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema write. “He’s recorded defensive grades above 84.0 in seven of the past eight seasons and continues to be a force in the pass rush, with a win rate above 12.0% for the seventh time in that span.
“The drop-off will come eventually — Father Time is undefeated — but there were no signs of it last year.”
There were no signs of a decline for Heyward. Honestly, he was as good as he’s ever been.
After getting a second surgery in the offseason to clean up his core-muscle injury ahead of the 2024 season, Heyward was able to tap into his power and mobility once again and reminded the league how good he is when healthy.
Across 838 snaps in the regular season and postseason, Heyward was outstanding. He finished with a PFF grade of 90.1 overall, and added a run-defense grade of 79.6 and a pass-rush grade of 85.9 overall. Along with his 8.0 sacks, Heyward generated 60 total pressures and added another 47 run stops.
Not only was he dominant as a pass rusher and run defender, Heyward was very good at the line of scrimmage. Last season, Heyward batted down 11 passes at the line of scrimmage, leading all non-defensive backs in the category. Even when he couldn’t get home with the pass rush, he disrupted the passing game in a major way.
Now, with Keeanu Benton entering Year 3 and rookie first-round pick Derrick Harmon joining the fold, the hope is the young players in the trenches defensively can step up and take some of the load off Heyward moving forward. Right now, though, he’s showing no signs of slowing down, and the 2025 season looks like another big one for him.
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