Cam Heyward

This is Dulac but no drama with him this year if this is true

 

Sounds fair

He played fairly well last year

 

I guess he will have enough money to take care of his family now

 

The Brown's roster full?

 

His wife nixed that idea

 

Steelers Prob need more $$ to sign someone else

 

Will be cut next year and eat some money ...right ?

 

They can restructure some contracts if they need more money for free agency.

 

Not if he magically keeps playing like he has since people on here said he was done 4 years ago.
This is why I pay no attention to the people that say Watt is done. Just as many said Heyward was done 4 years ago. LoL

 

The last two seasons with injuries are concerning for a guy who's brother fell off right about this time. I'm not sure Watt is totally cooked, but I totally understand why people think he might be. Yeah, people said the same about Heyward and he came back strong... Watt will have an opportunity to do the same. I hope he does, because we paid him too much money to get 7 sacks, even if he still produced in the TO department.

 

You are correct we don't know, but to compare him to his brother is not really fair, they both played a different position, and both have totally different body types.

 

Not necessarily a different position, but just the same position in different styles of defense. Edge rusher in a 4-3 is a different way to play edge rusher than in a 3-4, but its still an edge rusher. JJ is a good bit bigger, but soft tissue issues tend to be something that is genetic.

 

TJ had a collapsed lung due to dry needling. Not exactly a soft tissue injury. More like an oops! with the training/medical staff. Sh!t happens, but his was not a soft tissue injury that took him off the field.


We can agree his latest contract was a bit high for a player of his type with his high mileage. But his injury last season was not some Watt specific, age related issue.

 

Great! Now we can watch him running down the field chasing after losing the point of attack for 2 more seasons!

But at least we can now sleep tight knowing he can put food on the table!

And we won't have to hear him cry about missing meals for his starving family.

 

Welp, you don't do dry needling just for the fun of it. He was obviously dealing with something and thought that therapy would help.

 

A bit high?

 

I don't know how he managed all this time....
The struggle is real

 

Of course. He's an NFL player.

 

I'm on record stating that the Heyward contracts (I think this is like the 3rd one now) are objectively bad decisions in spite of the results. In any event, Heyward is the major outlier here but at least interior defensive linemen typically play well into their early 30s.

On the other hand, I had a very difficult time finding pass rushers (especially that 3-4 OLB type) who play well into their 30s. Kevin Greene, Bruce Smith, and Reggie White did it. There are a few others. But on the whole, you're lucky to get maybe a good season or two out of these guys after age 30.

I understand why they signed Watt and at the end of the day I don't think it matters that they signed Watt. Maybe they're ready to compete in 2028 but like let's be honest, the TJ Watt contract is not what's holding this team back at this point.

 

No, but his performance when he was on the field probably was.

Something changed after that injury in 2024. I don't buy the argument that the same league that was giving up a sack a game to TJ for 6.5 years before that injury suddenly figured him out.

 

This is true

 

Your quote: "...But his injury last season was not some Watt specific, age related issue."

My point, he did have some injury he was dealing with and hence the dry needling.

 

It was compared to his brother JJ. Whatever TJ was dealing with, it didn't cost him time on the field until the dry needling accident. TJ wasn't missing games until that happened. It wasn't something game related, age related, or because his last name is Watt related.
Does he play with injuries? Of course he does.

 

Interested to see all the details...but I'm assuming that we basically just made this year's salary guaranteed (I think he was set to have a big roster bonus around now which was most of his compensation for this year).

Then added a year on to push the cap hit and basically have an option for next year.

I'm also assuming that next season will be set up like the last two years where he gets the majority of the money as a roster bonus around the start of the league year. So he doesn't have to get ready for camp if we're just going to let him go.