It would be inaccurate to say Cameron Heyward has staged a strict hold-in throughout training camp, but his participation has been light as he continues to seek a pay raise for the 2025 season. It’s worth noting that he suited up to practice today just a few days ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 1 game against the New York Jets.
Here is a photo of Heyward in a helmet with some level of participation from Alysa Rubin at Steelers.com.
Media members are only allowed to get video content and report on the beginning portion of practice with warmups and individual drills, so it’s unclear whether Heyward was a full participant during the team periods today. But any participation is a good sign that he intends on playing this Sunday.
Here is a video of him participating in individual drills from The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo on X.
To be clear, Heyward had already returned to practice during the last week of the preseason. But it’s crunch time for contract negotiations and worth noting once again during game week.
Mike Tomlin said that he’s “certainly expecting” Heyward to play Sunday during his weekly Tuesday press conference. But earlier that day, Heyward gave a cryptic “we’ll see” answer when asked if he plans on suiting up Sunday. They are in the eleventh hour of contract negotiations with a hard deadline at kickoff on Sunday. The Steelers don’t negotiate in-season, and they aren’t about to change that important precedent.
Even Adam Schefter reported that things could get interesting. He was unsure if Heyward would end up playing Week 1. To be fair, national media guys act as the mouthpiece of agents more often than not, so that could have been a negotiating tactic on Heyward’s end.
If Heyward doesn’t get a pay raise, what choice does he actually have? If the Steelers don’t negotiate in-season, the battle is already lost by the time kickoff happens on Sunday. Heyward’s option would be to cost himself game checks by sitting out for part or all of the season. It certainly wouldn’t be in his best interest to take things that far at 36 years old with limited time remaining in the league.
He was also just named a team captain. That is voted on by teammates, and it’s a duty Heyward has taken seriously for over a decade in Pittsburgh. That wouldn’t make or break his decision, but it’s worth noting.
Like T.J. Watt’s infamous photo of him holding up the peace sign, players use various negotiating tactics to apply pressure to the team. That’s how I view his actions until Heyward actually sits out a game. His practice participation is a good sign that a holdout won’t happen.
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