We’ve rarely seen Cam Heyward in street clothes on the sideline, but there’ll be a T.J. Watt dose of that this season. In case you haven’t heard, the Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro has groin surgery on Wednesday. Though Mike Tomlin won’t put a timeframe on it, he’s expected to miss up to eight games, per sources of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac and Ray Fittipaldo.
For the first half of the season, Heyward’s contributions will come from a headset, not a helmet. It shouldn’t be underestimated how valuable that’ll be to guys like Isaiahh Loudermilk and Keeanu Benton and the defense as a whole.
“Cam is not the type of guy that moves away from his teammates whether he’s participating or not,” Tomlin said during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
“Some of the intangible things, some of the things that you get day-to-day outside the white lines, we’ll still receive the benefit of that. But make no mistake, there’s enough for us to do replacing his tangible contributions, his play, his presence and so forth.”
Heyward’s suited up for 184 career games and hasn’t missed an injury-related game since a torn pectoral landed him on injured reserve for the second half of the 2016 season.
Hits just keep coming for #Steelers with Cam Heyward announcing he's done for season with torn pectoral muscle
— Dale Lolley (@dlolley_pgh) November 15, 2016
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