Steelers Could Have Private Discussion With Veteran Player To Move Him Elsewhere

The Pittsburgh Steelers have begun the process of resetting the entire franchise after losing 30-6 to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. Shortly after the game's conclusion, now former Steelers head coach, Mike Tomlin, made the announcement to the team that he is stepping away from coaching, which essentially sent a signal to the entire team that it was time to retool. After his announcement, which was met with many emotional reactions to the news, there are many new questions that the team will have to answer -- everything from who the next head coach will be, to what to do with veteran players on expiring contracts.

With all the news circulating around who the next Steelers head coach will be, only the fourth head coach hired since 1969 in franchise history, a lot of the discussions around players on expiring contracts has largely gone unnoticed. The team has many aging veterans, especially on defense, who may need to be talked to about other options, some of which might involve leaving Pittsburgh.

Earlier on Thursday evening, Ray Fittipaldo made an appearance on 93.7 The Fan to discuss the options that may be presented to some of these players. Specifically, he brought up the contract of Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward and noted that he may end up being one of the players that the Steelers could potentially try to move on from in the offseason.

"Those are very interesting discussions," Fittipaldo said. "Cam does not have any guaranteed money in the contract to be held out, after a First Team All-Pro, why wouldn't he do it for a Second Team All-Pro? I just know how tight he is to the Steelers, I don't think he wants to go anywhere else, but if you're the Steelers, maybe you do ask him, 'Hey, do you wanna try to go win a Super Bowl somewhere else?' Maybe they would let him out of his contract."

While it seems like the team would want to keep Heyward for at least another year or so, considering how well he was playing to close out the season, it's definitely within the options of the team to consider finding a new suitor for Heyward's services. This is despite how loyal he has remained to the Steelers through everything. There are plenty of teams who would benefit greatly from Heyward's services on their defensive line, but the idea of Heyward leaving the team to go elsewhere seems impossible.

The Steelers would definitely save a lot of money against the cap by either cutting or trading Heyward before June 1st, 2026, and if a new head coach with new staff sees fit to attempt tearing down the roster to set the team up for future success, it's likely that they might try talking to Heyward to see if he'd want to go elsewhere, or take some form of pay cut. Most of the discussions regarding players like Heyward won't be mentioned as much with the current head coaching situation going on currently, but in the future, players like Heyward may consider leaving the team or display their loyalty by asking to stick around. So far however, that remains to be seen.

Whatever the Steelers decide to do, they have a long road ahead of them with regards to essentially rebuilding the entire team, but there's more than just the team that needs to be rebuilt.

Steelers Will Need To Rebuild Culture Along With Team

The Steelers' roster has largely been constructed to simply put themselves in position to make the playoffs and see what happens afterwards. Whenever the new head coach arrives, they'll need to rebuild the culture in Pittsburgh to send a message that the team will be competing for Super Bowls, not just simply competing to make the playoffs. Whether this is done with or without leaders like Heyward remains to be seen.

What did you think about Fittipaldo's comments regarding Heyward's future? Let us know in the comments below.

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