Longtime Steelers analyst questions the leadership of T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward inside of Pittsburgh's locker room

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Rob Gregson | Last updated Jun 18, 2025 2:30 PM ET

Most people know that the Pittsburgh Steelers live and breathe through their defense.

Two of the three pillars of that defense are T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward.

But according to Dave Dameshek, the leadership of those two players might be overrated...

Steelers defensive captains fall short?

"Who are the leaders?" Dameshek asked recently on his podcast, The Shek Show, via YouTube. "In Pittsburgh, he [Aaron Rodgers] doesn't have to lead: What leadership are we talking about that exists in Pittsburgh before Aaron Rodgers arrives? The defensive leaders? I like Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt. I think they're both going to the Hall of Fame. The defense fell apart last December. Did everybody forget that . . .

". . . Does everybody have amnesia about that? They were arguing about whose gap it was. It was mid-December, and they were arguing, you can get screen grabs from pro football games of NFL defenders in Black and Gold pointing at each other like, 'No, no, no, no, that was you. No, you were supposed to be there. Arguing in the microphones after games. This is the leadership group that you're walking into."

I think there is some validity to Shek's point about the defensive struggles down the stretch in Pittsburgh. When you get to the playoffs and you have communication issues, that falls on Mike Tomlin, Teryl Austin, and all three of Minkah Fitzpatrick, T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward.

But that by no means makes them bad leaders. T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward set the tone by example, by action, not by words. It's not their fault that the rest of the defense was Swiss cheese in the run game and their backend looked like they were speaking different languages on simple split safety coverages.

Heyward and Watt played through injury and had Pro Bowl and All-Pro seasons. They are far from the problem in Pittsburgh, and I expect those two to be the voice of the locker room until they retire, because neither one of them are going anywhere.