Steelers End Cam Heyward Concerns

“He’s our leader so I’m confident he’s gonna play. He’s an All-Pro guy for us,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said.

Head coach Mike Tomlin echoed a similar sentiment during his press conference on Tuesday, stating that he had little doubt about Heyward's availability vs. the Jets.

"Cam doesn't play a lot in team development over the last several years," Tomlin said. "My job is to get him in and out of Latrobe, and I've done my job. And so, there are no reservations about his participation or his readiness. I'm sure he's champing at the bit."

With little to no progress in talks between Heyward and the team by his own admission on the latest episode of his "Not Just Football" podcast, though, the situation has remained fluid.

The 36-year-old agreed to a two-year extension worth $29 million in new money with the Steelers just ahead of Week 1 last September. At the time, however, he warned the team that he'd be back at the negotiating table after earning an All-Pro nod, and he made good on his word with 71 tackles and eight sacks.

Pittsburgh handed out new or reworked deals to the likes of T.J. Watt, Jaylen Warren, DeShon Elliott, DK Metcalf and Jonnu Smith this offseason, but nothing has come to fruition with Heyward just yet.

Even so, there are a lot of overreactions regarding Heyward's status as the regular season gets set to begin. It's easy to understand why that may be the case with the threat of a potential holdout looming, but that still remains an incredibly unrealistic scenario for a locker room leader and the team's longest-tenured player to follow through with.

The Steelers really need Heyward to be active, especially with rookie first-round pick and fellow defensive lineman Derrick Harmon out with a knee injury for the time being, and there's almost no reason to believe he won't suit up against the Jets.