Steelers DT Cam Heyward: Roughing the Passer Should Have 3 Tiers of Penalties

Cam Heyward wants to change how the NFL calls roughing the passer, and he came armed with a tiered system. But first he had to survive Rich's opening line, a crack that any Steelers player needing to learn French could have just listened to the fan base for the first three quarters of their last game.

"Way to sneak that in right before I got on," Heyward said. "I love that, Rich."

The game in question was a road comeback that ended in overtime. Pittsburgh trailed 13-0 and then 13-3 at the half, and Rich called the final result "beautiful" and the comeback "gutty." Heyward admitted it was "a lot of ups and downs, and definitely a lot of downs to start off the game." The defense settled down, tackled better and kept the opponent out of the red zone, and the offense came alive in the second half. Heyward credited Germie Bernard, DK Metcalf and a running game between Rico Dowdle and Jaylen Warren.

"And then you just put the ball in the old man's hands," Heyward said, "and you kind of think you always got a chance."

The old man, of course, is Aaron Rodgers. Rich loved a moment cameras caught where Rodgers smiled at Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and told him, "I know your dad." Heyward wasn't surprised. "He knows everybody's dad," he said. "There's plenty of old people Aaron knows and has played against."

Rich marveled at the hits Rodgers keeps taking and popping back up from. Heyward said he doesn't like his quarterback getting hit, but some of those hits have turned into explosive plays, pointing to a touchdown in the Indy game that only happened because Rodgers took the shot. "It's not like he's a mobile quarterback rushing for 30, 40 yards," Heyward said. "He's able to just escape and step up in the pocket and deliver the ball on time, and it just wears out a defense when he's able to extend the pocket."

That led to the field. Rich pointed to a photo showing what might have been blood on Rodgers's arm, or might have been field paint. Heyward said the surface was rough before the game even started. He was on his knees striking near the goalpost when "the ground started coming up from beneath me." His concern was safety. "You want to make sure it's even for everybody," he said, because a surface that comes up "leads to a lot of injuries."

The win put Pittsburgh at 4-2 in a division where, as Rich noted, all four teams are above .500. "We're never out of it," Heyward said, name-checking Cleveland, Baltimore and Cincinnati. "AFC North is where it's at. The kitchen is hot."

Then Rich got to the important question: who gave Mike McCarthy grief about ending up in the blue tent himself? Heyward said McCarthy wasn't in the locker room at halftime, "so he escaped that ridicule, because all players would have gave him hell." After the game, Heyward said, the question was "is he hurt?" because McCarthy was hobbling back and forth and not moving too well. "Players got to battle adversity, and coaches too," he said.

The verdict came the next day. McCarthy walked into the meeting room without a boot. "If there was a boot on that foot, we were going to give him hell," Heyward said. Rich asked if McCarthy went full Roethlisberger, and the bit escalated into a Michael Scott moment: bubble wrap on the foot, a wheelchair, a neck brace. "That would have been hilarious," he said. "I think our coach is a little bit tougher than that."

Rich called it a stones win and compared it to the week the Bills spent bonding in Southern California. Heyward talked about stacking performances. "It's a short stack right now," he said. "I want to make it five or six pancakes, but we got some work to do." Pittsburgh had been taking care of business at home. "This is our first win on the road," he said. "It was nothing short of adversity, but I'm glad to say we got the W."

Next up is New Orleans in Paris. Heyward said the team leaves Thursday night around 7 and arrives Friday morning. The jet lag advice: don't eat too late, get some rest, then stay up as long as you can after landing, and don't keep the TV or iPad on too long on the plane. He was glad the Steelers aren't arriving right before the game, and said he'd heard New Orleans was already there trying to create an edge.

Rich asked about the unrest in France. Heyward said the NFL feels comfortable sending them over, and the players' job is to be smart: no traveling alone, stay in groups, don't wander off. Had anyone suggested the game might not happen? "No," Heyward said. "The NFL likes money, so we're not looking for that opportunity." Rich said Heyward put his full body weight on that hit.

With several teams still looking unsettled six weeks in, Rich asked whether that is still because of how the offseason works. Heyward said that horse is out of the barn. "We have six games of footage that everybody can study," he said. "I don't think there's a complete team right now. I think everybody is still working on being their best team in December." He added that special teams, "especially in 2026," are becoming so big that teams have to keep that unit up to par too. Asked if there's a clear-cut best team, he said, "Not right now."

Which brought him to his rule change of the week. Heyward wants roughing the passer split into levels. Level one would be a five-yard penalty, not an automatic first down, and reviewable, for hits that need to be called but aren't egregious or violent. Level two would carry the automatic first down. Rich reminded him the owners need actual language to vote on, so Heyward defined it. "I think a 15er is helmet to helmet," he said. A level one would be "body weight, and it's not an act of violence, but body weight is put on and we move on."

His reasoning was that automatic first downs hand offenses too much, and sometimes "you get a little bit of flop." Being able to review a play and say it looks less bad in slow motion would let officials make it five yards and move on.

Rich asked him to be honest. On third-and-8, 9 or 10, wouldn't a defender just take the shot knowing it won't cost his team a possession? Heyward said you take the shot, but more often than not, it keeps the game out of the referee's hands. "You still get the drama of a third down," he said. "It takes the thinking away from, oh, this is the automatic 15 yards and we've already ended the game right there."

Those 15-yard calls are crushers, Rich agreed, giving both a fresh set of downs and field position, and he pointed to a roughing call over the middle that set up the Cardinals to beat the Rams. But he raised the other side: if he's the Rooneys, he doesn't want someone taking a shot at Rodgers because it's only five yards. Heyward's answer was that everybody is already trying to put body weight on Rodgers "because that's the only way you stop him." He wants the game cleaned up defensively, he said, "but I'm not going to get away from hits in our game and being physical at the point of attack."

To close, Rich checked on Heyward's French. He isn't fluent and has never been to France, though he just got back from Italy. Rich, whose wife speaks French fluently, advised him to at least try, because the locals know right away you're American. Heyward said he needs to get on Duolingo.

He also previewed this week's guest on Not Just Football: Germie Bernard. His French, by the end, extended to "croissant." Rich declared him a natural.