Cam Heyward deserved the opportunity to retire as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
And thanks to the new three-year contract he signed with the team this week, he'll get that shot.
A 10-time team captain, later this season, Heyward will pass Hall of Fame safety Donnie Shell for the most games played by a defensive player in Steelers history. Shell leads the way with 201 games played. Heyward has played in 194 career games.
Only Ben Roethlisberger (249 games), Mike Webster (220) and Hines Ward (217) will have played in more.
He's the franchise's all-time leader in tackles by a defensive lineman with 647, 20 behind safety Ryan Clark for fifth-place in team history.
Heyward also has 80.5 career sacks, which is tied with James Harrison for second place on the team's all-time list behind T.J. Watt.
He's an all-time great Steelers player.
He's also one of the team's all-time great leaders.
In the pantheon of great leaders in team history, you can draw a direct line from Joe Greene to Webster to Rod Woodson to Jerome Bettis to James Farrior and Troy Polamalu and Brett Keisel to Heyward.
Heyward certainly belongs in that kind of company.
"I think that's valuable, just having those older vets who have been through things and can help the younger guys out on situations that they think they might be alone on," said third-year defensive tackle Keeanu Benton. "The older vets are always there to guide someone through what they're going through.
He's the sheriff in the Steelers' locker room, the guy everyone – offensively or defensively – looks to when times get difficult."
Benton just happens to play in the same position group as Heyward, so he gets an intimate look at Heyward's leadership skills on a daily, hourly basis.
But make no mistake, Heyward is the main guy in that locker room that other players look to for how things are done.
There are other leaders, such as Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Miles Killebrew and others, but Heyward is the guy they all look to when it's all said and done.
"It's just kind of him leading by example," Benton said. "Everybody does it differently. Him leading is not the same as T.J. leading, not the same as Minkah leading. It's all about your personality and the way you decide to lead."
Heyward doesn't shirk that responsibility in any form or fashion. In fact, he embraces it.
"I've had a lot of great teachers, a lot of guys that led me along the way, the Brett Keisels, the Troy Polamalus, the Aaron Smiths," Heyward said. "To be in a leadership role, you don't shy away from that. You embrace it. You bring guys up to speed. You challenge guys. But you're always thinking of the greater good of the team. It's always what I talk about."
The players in that locker room recognize Heyward's commitment to being a team leader and respect it.
"Cam has been like my work big brother since I've been here," said Watt. "He brought me in and it was just wanting to help me progress as much as possible. He's done that and some, including in the community, off the field, what it means to be a great teammate. I'm just so happy that a guy like that, who is so deserving of a deal, I think it's his fourth one, to hopefully be able to finish his career here in Pittsburgh is just so incredible."
He's been a great player for the Steelers. He's been an even better teammate and mentor.
• How good has Watt been in his first seven seasons?
He and his brother J.J Watt are the NFL's all-time leaders in most sacks by brothers with 211. The next-closest brothers are John and Ervin Randle with 145.5.
Thing is, John Randle provided 137.5 of those sacks in his Hall of Fame career. Ervin Randle, a linebacker for eight seasons with the Buccaneers and Chiefs, added just eight to that total.
In the case of T.J. and J.J. Watt, both have added to that number in a big way.
J.J. Watt had 114.5 sacks in his 12-year career, one that saw him win NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times.
With just an average season – at least for him – T.J. Watt could pass his brother on the league's all-time sack list this season.
In the past five seasons in which he's played at least 15 games, Watt has averaged 16.8 sacks. The team single-season record for sacks before Watt came along was 16 by Harrison in 2008 when he won NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Watt has made big-sack seasons a blase thing, so much so that maybe he's taken a little for granted. Witness Watt not winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 as proof of that.
What he's done in his first seven NFL seasons is rarified air.
Having led the NFL in sacks in three of the past four seasons, if Watt does it again in 2024, he will become the first player to do so since the sack became recognized as an official stat in 1982. He's currently the only player to have done it three times.
If Watt matches his league-leading total of 19 sacks last season, he'll be the only player in NFL history to have three seasons with 19 or more sacks. In fact, if he gets 18 sacks this season, he'll match Hall of Fame defensive end Reggie White as the only other player to have three such seasons in his career.
If Watt gets at least 15 sacks this season, he'll join White and his brother as the only players since 1982 to have four such seasons.
If he records at least 13 sacks, he'll join White, Bruce Smith and former Steelers outside linebacker Kevin Greene as the only players with six such seasons in their careers. Like White, Smith and Greene are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Watt enters the season with 96.5 career sacks in 104 games. If he gets 3.5 sacks in the Steelers' first eight games this season, he'll get to 100 sacks in the second-least amount of games in NFL history behind White, who did it in 96 career games. Demarcus Ware did it in 113 career games.
Watt also turns 30 on Oct. 11. If he can get 3.5 sacks before turning 30, he'll become just the third player to accomplish that feat, joining White and defensive end Jared Allen.
What Watt is doing is Hall of Fame worthy.
• Tomlin is 10-6 in regular season openers. That's tied for the third-most wins in the NFL for current head coaches behind Baltimore's John Harbaugh, who is 12-4, and Kansas City's Andy Reid, who is 16-9.
The only other coach with 10 wins on kickoff weekend is Mike McCarthy in Dallas, who has a 10-7 record on the league's opening weekend.
New Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh is a perfect 4-0 in regular season openers. Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia is 3-0, while Mike McDaniel in Miami is 2-0.
Overall, the Steelers are 46-38-5 in regular season openers. The five ties are tied with the Giants and Bears for the most on kickoff weekend.
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast
• By a number of metrics, the Steelers have one of the most difficult schedules in the NFL this season. But they also have one of the easiest travel schedules, which also matters.
The Steelers are scheduled to travel 12,047 miles this season, which ranks as the fourth-fewest in the league behind Washington (10,550), Cincinnati (10,611) and Indianapolis (11,497).
The Chargers (26,803) have the longest travel schedule in the NFL this season.
In the AFC North, Baltimore travels 15,424 miles, which ranks 22nd in the league, while the Browns have 13,998 miles to travel, which ranks 25th.
As a whole, the AFC North has the lightest travel schedule in the NFL this season, with its teams logging just 52,080 miles. The AFC East has the toughest travel schedule as a whole, logging just over 90,000 miles as a group.
• In the past two NFL seasons, teams have used a record 69 starting quarterbacks in 2022 and 67 last season.
Just eight quarterbacks started all 17 of their team's games, though backups Sam Howell and Gardner Minshew both appeared in all 17 games, respectively, because of injuries. Both Howell, who went from Washington to Seattle, and Minshew, who signed with the Raiders after playing for the Colts in 2023, are with new teams in 2024.
Surprisingly, however, more than half the league – 17 teams – are heading into the season with just two quarterbacks on their active rosters.
The Steelers, however, are not one of those teams. Organizationally, they believe in having three quarterbacks on the active roster.
And it makes a lot of sense. Quarterbacks know the intricacies of a team's offense inside and out. The last thing a team wants is to have a third quarterback stashed on the practice squad, only to watch him get poached away by another team – and possible future opponent.
Given the number of quarterbacks used in the league the last two seasons, that's a distinct possibility.
