CAM HEYWARD
Defensive Tackle
The interior of the defensive line is not a place for the faint of heart or the long of tooth. Cam Heyward is certainly not faint of heart, but he is 35 years old, although you'd never know it by the way he has been playing in what is his 14th NFL season.
In the 13th game of his 14th season, Heyward had 3 tackles, and 2 of the team's three sacks in a 27-14 win over the Browns at Acrisure Stadium that raised the Steelers record to 10-3 and made their lead of Baltimore in the AFC North an even 2 games with 4 to play.
One of those sacks came on a play that began as a third-and-6 from the Steelers 21-yard line in the fourth quarter, and after Heyward got Jameis Winston on the ground and Browns OT Germain Ifedi had compounded things with an unnecessary roughness penalty, the Browns were punting instead of maybe cutting into their 27-7 deficit.
Heyward's sacks gave him 8 on the season – behind only T.J. Watt's team-leading 9.5 – and 88.5 in his career where he currently ranks second on the franchise's all-time list. He is the Steelers Digest Player of the Week.
Also considered were SS DeShon Elliott, who led the team with 13 tackles and added a pass defensed; ILB Patrick Queen, who had 10 tackles and a pass defensed; QB Russell Wilson, who completed 15-of-26 (57.7 percent) for 158 yards, with 2 touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rating of 101.1; ILB Elandon Roberts, who had 3 tackles, including a tackle for a 5-yard loss on a fourth-and-1 from near midfield in the third quarter; P Corliss Waitman, who averaged 52.3 yards on 6 punts and finished with a 45-yard net average, while flipping the field twice in the second half then the Browns were playing catch-up; and WR Ben Skowronek, who had 2 tackles on special teams and recovered a muffed punt at the Cleveland 20-yard line to allow the Steelers to take possession and run out the final 2:53 of the game.
