Cam Heyward isn't practicing because he wants a raise

well,

it seems a few here have synced up

 

The coolest team friendly contract I saw last year was with Von Miller who took a $10 million Salary paycut and then put it all back in incentives. He goes from $17.5 million to $8.85 million plus incentives.

2 sacks = $1M bonus

4 sacks = $1.5M bonus ($2.5M total)

6 sacks = $1.5M bonus ($4M total)

8 sacks = $2M bonus ($6M total)

10.5 sacks = $2.645M bonus ($8.645M total)

15 sacks = $1M bonus ($9.645 total)

There's also a $1.5M bonus if he has 12 sacks in the regular season, plays 30% of the snaps in the AFC Championship game, AND the Bills make the Super Bowl.

 

To get paid? That's what that looks like

 

Miller took a pay cut to keep from getting released.

 

This is how Steelers should have set up the contract with Cam. Instead Steelers chose to have the right to cut him for "free" after last season.

I think Steelers gambled on cutting Cam after last season assuming he would stink it up... except he turned in an all-pro season.

 

The contract he has is fine. It had good guarantees and was the largest for a defender over 35 years old. I get he wants a raise because he played well last year, but the contract was a win for both sides. Heyward got the guarantee that he would be on the team at least for two additional years and good money, and the Steelers got the void year at the end if his play dropped off with age.

We we're planning on having him through 2025 regardless. We would prefer to keep him through 26, but if his play fell off we had an out. We don't owe him for his 2024. If we cut him after 25 and he wants to test the market, by all means, do so. But I think its dumb to sign a contract, have a good year, then sit out for more. Bet on yourself or don't. I am sure we would have given him a one year contract. If so, we'd have to come to the table this year with more money. Cam didn't bet on himself. He chose the safety of term and now he has to live with it.

 

Maybe I am crazy, but I still think the #1 reason Cam wants a new contract is Pure Jealousy.

Everyone else is getting their ice cream, I know I ate mine last year, but why can't I have anymore!!!
Poor little Cam doesn't get any ice cream this year.

 

Why do people keep saying "Heyward got the guarantee that he would be on the team at least for two additional years"?

Cam did NOT get any extra guaranteed money for two more years. In fact, Cam's guaranteed money did NOT change as a result of last years contract. Steelers could have cut him after last season without any penalties. Steelers can cut him after this season without any penalties.

Steelers offered Cam the same guaranteed money but extended the contract for more years with the ability for Steelers to cut his ass after each season.

Steelers wanted to lower the cap hit in 2024 - that was why Steelers wanted a new contract with him. That meant, the length of the contract had to be extended to lower the cap hit in 2024 - that's what Steelers wanted. To lower the cap hit, Steelers changed moneys to "signing bonus" and "roster bonus". All of that was done by the Steelers, for the Steelers, and Cam got nothing extra out of it.

What Steelers did wrong was agree to pay him 90% of his money for the 2025 season in March of 2025 as "roster bonus" (again this is what Steelers did to lower cap hit). As soon as the idiot steelers "prepaid" for 2025 at lower than market value, then it made it 100% legit for Cam to demand market value.

 

Wait , you think they gave a 30 something year old Cam 29 million dollars with a 14 million dollars signing bonus, and 16 million guaranteed for that year because they thought he would suck???

 

What do you mean? His dead cap if we would have cut him after 2024 would be $13.45 million? It's not "no penalty". We weren't cutting him Pre-2024 because we just signed him, so it guaranteed him 2024... and then it made it so we'd have a big dead cap hit if we cut him prior to the 2025 season. He got that money guaranteed up front. Signing bonus was future earnings moved up in an attempt to spread the money out over additional years. Roster bonuses are guaranteed if you make the roster.. which we essentially guaranteed for 2024 and 2025 by how the contract was worded. He also got 29 million dollars in new money according to the reporting by NFL.com.

Don't act like Cam didn't get anything from it. That just isn't true. We also didn't give him less than "market value" we paid him more than any defensive player at his age has ever gotten. He was a top 20 paid DL at the time and he was coming off a down year where he was injured for 6 games. It was his first season without a pro bowl since 2016... He got paid what he was worth. Who could've guessed he'd return to 2021 form and be a first team All Pro? Cam didn't... that is why he took the money that was offered. If he thought he was going to be an Alll pro again he would have negotiated in the world we live in now (not the world we lived in before the 2024 season). We'd be paying him over 20 million a year on an extension. But he took the safety of term and now he wants to cash in again because he had a big year. I can respect the desire from him, but there is ZERO chance the Steelers should do it. None.

 

You're numbers are not correct. https://steelersnow.com/steeler-for-life-cam-heyward-signs-3-year-contract-extension/

All they did was turn his 2024 money from salary to signing bonus - this was not new money.

The $29M was for the next two years, which Steelers had options to decide to pay March of 2025 and March of 2026. So yes, Steelers gambled on the extension part, or they totally suck at negotiating.

 

The contract he signed turned his salary for 2024 to signing bonus + vet minimum. This means, Cam did NOT get new money in 2024. Steelers got about $10M cap savings.

The contract said Steelers have the option of cutting Cam before March 2025 without any extra money to Cam, or Steeler can keep him on roster after March 2025 and prepay Cam his 2025 salary as roster bonus.

Steelers didn't exercise their option to cut Cam before March... and now are in a pickle cause Cam got prepaid and can legit claim he's an underpaid all-pro.

 

Here we go again with your useless posts...

So, you're saying, in 2024, Steelers purposely signed a contract with Cam that said Steelers would prepay his entire Salary for 2025 in March of 2025?

I guess if Khan/Rooney are uber stupid, they would sign such a contract. That's possible too... they didn't gamble on Cam stinking up the joint - They are just dumbshits.

 

Sounds even dumber than your other related post

 

Pay attention

I can only dumb this down so much

What I am saying is

 

No, literally no. That is not how any of that works.

The last year of Cam's previous deal was 16 million dollars and none of it was guaranteed. The cap charge was higher. They agreed to a 3 year contract that paid him $15 million at signing and 1.3 million salary. This effectively made every penny that was unguaranteed in 2024 (for his old contract) completely guaranteed... which allowed us to reduce his cap hit by $9.8 million. THEN for 2025 Cam is due a "roster bonus" 13.5 million dollars (which is new money) on top of his 1.3 million dollar salary. He would be due a "roster bonus" of 13 million dollars if he were to be on the team in 2026 alongside that 1.3 million dollar salary (also, new money). So essentially, his old money got guaranteed onto the new contract and we essentially guaranteed $14.8 million dollars in 2025 since we would get zero cap savings by cutting him. We would actually raise his cap charge by 3.6 million if we did. That was never in a million years going to happen. On top of that, if Cam was still playing well enough to be on the team in 2026 we could keep him around for 14.3 million in new money.

Pre-paid is not what happened. The Steelers worked guarantees into the new contract that equaled the exact amount that was unguaranteed in his old contract. We then made his new money incredibly easy to attain, and made it so that the money in 2025 would be virtually guaranteed due to cap charge increases for cutting him. 2026 is where we would have a true out.

The reality is that nobody thought Cam was going to be an All Pro. Including Cam. He figured this deal would last him through 2025 with a chance at making through 2026. That would give him another nearly 15 million dollars and if his health was good and he was still playing decent he could get another 14 in 2026. He didn't bet on himself by asking for a one year deal. He wanted the security of the multi-year deal and got it. Now he wants to re-negotiate because he played a lot better in 2024 than he did in 2023. Not happening. He has zero leverage outside of missing games. Even then its an issue because if he misses too many games, then he risks injury upon return (or if he misses the entire season he gets cut and no teams will want to pay a 37 year old DL that is coming off a missed season more than a couple million). The Steelers 100% should call his bluff. His best option is to put together another good season, collect his 15 million, and hope the Steelers or another team will want to pay him more than 14 million dollars guaranteed in 2026.

This whole narrative where Cam is being slighted is a wild one.

 

Little @OB1 was going for the look at me attention with his post

He is not interested in a logical well thought response

 

Let me teach you

The Steelers not only have leverage they have ALL the leverage

There are about 25 starters on a team and Cam is one he equates to about 4% and 4% is easy to replace

For Cam it is 100%

He does what he is told if that is the route the Steelers want to go

If he holds out the Steelers replace him just like they did to have 9 other new starters this year and poof Cam and his career are over

See isn’t it fun to learn how the big people do business

Glad to be of help

 

The person Cam Heyward should be mad at is his agent and himself. I like Cam and he
has been a wonderful player and citizen of the PGH Steelers. maybe both sides can compromise
and get this settled so Cam can get to WORK. I guess because I am not rich I can't understand why these players
many who have made over 100 -200 million in their careers need even more? They have generational wealth. I can't fathom
the need for always more.

 

PLEONEXIA