Steelers Cameron Heyward Quickly Fires Back After Being Listed As A 3 Dollar Defensive Lineman

There are several defensive legends that have put on a black and gold jersey for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Big names such as Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Troy Polamalu, Jack Ham and many others have won Super Bowls with the franchise. The organization has a solid core in the present day with TJ Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cameron Heyward. It can be argued that aside from quarterback, Kenny Pickett, the trio on defense are the most important players on the team entering 2023. Heyward is the most experienced of the bunch and is still playing great football at age 34.

Everyone has their own opinion when it comes to football and some digital media outlets attempt to back their content up with analytics. One of the most popular out there is Pro Football Focus. The site is backed by significant models and data, but sometimes things such as rankings and tweets are heavily questioned by fans and sometimes, even players.

The most recent occurrence of this was on Monday when the outlet tweeted out a scenario in which a fan had to build their dream defensive line group with just $10. Certain players could be labeled at one dollar while others were worth five. Steelers star edge rusher, Watt was available for four dollars and disrespectfully put below Cleveland Browns' defender, Myles Garrett.

Heyward came in at three dollars despite being a six-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro. The more shocking part of the scenario was that New York Giants' defensive lineman, Dexter Lawrence was listed at four dollars, despite only playing in four NFL seasons and only having a single Pro Bowl nod. It's a rather simple argument to make that Heyward should have been ahead of Lawrence.

While it was a pretty easy Twitter exercise to get some fan engagement, Heyward caught wind of the tweet and responded on Tuesday after clearly feeling disrespected.

Several Steelers Recently Disrespected By More Than Just PFF

The same day PFF tweeted the graphic, another media outlet, The 33rd Team, did not include Heyward or any of his defensive teammates on a list that was designed to focus on which current NFL players have the potential to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. Yes, Heyward, Watt, Fitzpatrick and newcomer, Patrick Peterson were all not considered.

If Heyward is upset with PFF's analysis of him being worth three dollars in the exercise, he would definitely not be thrilled if he saw The 33rd Team's analysis regarding future Hall of Fame inductees. As he has aged, it almost has seemed like Heyward has gotten better each year. He has 20.5 sacks in the last two seasons alone.

Overall, Heyward has 614 career tackles, 176 quarterback hits, 115 tackles for loss, 78.5 sacks, eight forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries during his 12-year career with the Steelers. If he has a couple more solid seasons, he should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame discussion. In PFF's tweet, he should been rated above Lawrence given his experience, career numbers and strong play. There aren't many defensive linemen better than Heyward entering 2023.

Do you agree with Heyward? Should he have been rated higher than Lawrence? How do you feel about him calling PFF out with his tweet? Let us know in the comments below!

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