Steelers DT Cam Heyward: What Players Expect from a Good Defensive Coordinator

Cam Heyward had to restart everything just to get on the show. Zoom wasn't working, and he admitted he started freaking out. Rich told him he cleaned house and it worked out, which was a sly way into the real topic: Heyward's head coach had talked about cleaning house, and then the Steelers dropped 34 points on the Colts.

"I'm trying to figure out who we fired, because everybody was thinking we were gonna fire everybody," Heyward said.

Nobody got fired. The Steelers stayed the course, and in year 16, Heyward knows better than to overreact to one result. "It's one game. It's one game, but our offense has been humming," he said. Defensively, he liked what they did against Jonathan Taylor but thinks they can keep more points off the board.

Heyward singled out Jaylen Warren, who was "on fire" against Indianapolis. "He's so dang good. And he doesn't get enough credit for his contact balance and just taking it deep," he said, pointing to the catch out of the backfield to open the game, the one where Aaron took a big hit, and a running game that felt like everything was at full tilt.

After the game, the message in the locker room was simple. "Hey, we won, but now we got to stack," Heyward said. "Everybody likes a good short stack, right? Everybody likes pancakes."

That detour went where you'd expect. Rich declared himself a Belgian waffle man despite no background in Belgium. Heyward grew up on the Eggo, plain with syrup on top. One member of the crew went with French toast. Rich went for the old commercial, telling Heyward that if anyone grabbed his cinnamon Eggo he should tell them to "Leggo my Eggo." Heyward asked if the two of them could get an Eggo sponsorship going. "I think we just did," came the reply.

Back to stacking. Heyward said the push came from all the veterans, because the Steelers' road results have been one thing and their home results another. "We got to make sure it's not just a home and road thing," he said.

Next up is Tampa Bay, the team that beat Dallas on Thursday night to start week five. Heyward credited the Bucs for rallying without Baker Mayfield and called their run game exceptional, with Kenneth Gainwell, the Steelers' team MVP last year, now paired with Bucky Irving. "It's really synonymous with winning this game that we stop the run and then be able to get after the passer," he said.

Rich, who has Gainwell in a fantasy league, said the Bucs don't use him enough. Rich teased that Heyward plays in a league full of dads. Heyward admitted he picked up the Atlanta Falcons defense, which started great and ended badly. Luckily, he had George Pickens, Dak, Trey McBride, and Justin Jefferson. "I'm able to laugh about the embarrassment of riches I have in my fantasy league," he said.

Heyward also paid respect to Vita Vea. "I don't know how Vita does it," he said. "You look at the size of the man and you're like, damn, that's going to be a problem for anybody." Vea can move, can rush the passer, and always draws two blockers and sometimes three. With Todd Bowles bringing pressure, Rich noted Warren's role in protection. Rich also gave shoutouts to Germie Bernard's nice game and to Roman Wilson and Pat Freiermuth combining for two touchdowns.

DK Metcalf got his due too, though not for a catch. On Warren's touchdown, Heyward said, Metcalf's two blocks made the difference. "In Pittsburgh, we're known for having really great blockers as wide receivers," Heyward said. "Without those, it might just be a long run and not a touchdown."

Then Rich asked about the ending of Giants-Commanders, and Heyward did not hold back. After punching the ball out from Cam Skattebo, he said, Washington should have been thinking about winning the game.

"You go down there, you're wasting time, and you don't think there's a conversation that happened that said, 'Hey, we need to either spike this ball or get this ball out of bounds immediately because we got to stop the clock,'" Heyward said. "I was dumbfounded when I watched that. I was really shocked."

He felt bad for Dan Quinn and hoped there had been communication, but put the burden on the quarterback. "As a quarterback, you got to be able to understand the situation more than anybody."

If he were a Commanders defender, would he demand answers in the locker room? "I've probably already spazzed out, so I'm not asking any questions at that point," Heyward said. "That is a game you have to win a hundred times. Not 99. 100 times." He laid out exactly what needed to be said going into that drive: no timeouts left, can't take a sack, can't fall to the ground and act like everything's okay. "I would have been pissed to be in that locker room."

Rich then asked Heyward to diagnose Dallas from afar, where the Cowboys hired Mike Pettine and are moving coordinator Christian Parker from the field to the booth. Heyward thinks they're trying to fix communication, and he wondered aloud where an outsider like Pettine fits: linebackers, defensive backs, or the line. "Sometimes there can be too many cooks in the kitchen, and I don't know if that's the case here," he said.

The talent is there, he said, calling Quinnen Williams one of the top 10 defensive tackles in the league and praising Caleb Downs on the back end as an instinctual player who will keep getting better. What Dallas needs is buy-in, a consistent message from the coaches, and to simplify.

On the field-to-booth question in general, Heyward was clear about his preference. "I like for our coordinator to be on the field, because then you can have constant communication," he said. "You can update things. You can check plays that you want to run." Moving upstairs might help a coordinator who is too focused on one part of the game, or one whose sideline antics are getting the best of him. But the tradeoff is real. "You're not going to have the TJ Watts of the world able to get on the headphone every time out," he said.

Pittsburgh just made the opposite move, bringing Patrick Graham down to the field, and Heyward said it was much better. "We're able to communicate things that we're seeing and then apply it instead of just having one guy at the headphones," he said. "It allows everybody to feel a lot more confident."

Rich asked whether Heyward or TJ Watt pushed for the change. Heyward said he could only speak for himself, but he didn't think the players went to Graham. He believes Graham understood what was going on, talked it over with Mike McCarthy, and that as long as the results keep coming, he stays on the sideline. As for more shots of Watt on the headset? There are other coaches up there, Heyward said with a laugh, but he doesn't think Watt is going out of his way to talk to them.

The trip to Tampa also brings a reunion with special teams coach Danny Smith, who Heyward said goes into a game with at least 10 pieces of gum in his mouth. "Danny's always prepared," he said.

Heyward nearly let Rich end the segment without his homework. He came with a rule change, and it came from the Rams-Bills game, where Aaron Donald's sack got wiped out by a penalty in the secondary. Heyward wants a stat that still credits a defensive lineman who beats his man clean when nothing he did affected the play. "I just think we need to acknowledge more of the D-lineman getting the sack in that chance," he said.

Rich played devil's advocate: what if the receiver wasn't open because a defender was illegally draping himself on him, buying Donald the time? Heyward had his rebuttal ready. "He can throw it out of bounds."

What to call it? Heyward didn't know. "Ask PFF. They got something for that."