Cross Cam Heyward Off Browns’ 2025 Wishlist
Credit: Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports
Cam Heyward recently made waves with the Pittsburgh Steelers fanbase by talking about his future beyond this season. The five-time Pro Bowler is in the last year of his contract with the Steelers — the only team he’s ever played for — and is facing being in another uniform this time next year.
In June, The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly covered Heyward’s future, even going so far as to suggest he could hop over to the Cleveland Browns. “I still have family in Cleveland… my wife is from Cleveland. We will see. I am not trying to think about all that right now,” Kaboly quoted Heyward as saying.
How fun would that be next season? Not just being able to get Heyward on a defensive line that’s already one of the league’s best, but being able to stick it to an AFC North rival? To get a Pro Bowl-level player with an extra chip on their shoulder against the Steelers? It’d be like Brett Favre jumping ship to the Vikings, or Richard Sherman going playing for the 49ers levels of fun.
But hopefully, no one got ahead of themselves and custom-ordered a Heyward Browns jersey in preparation for next season. Heyward’s been out squashing any hint of him defecting across the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. He was so committed to debunking the rumor that he even willingly spoke to Jim Rome on July 3.
“Steelers fans took [the Cleveland comment] very literally,” Heyward explained. “When I was talking to the reporter at the time, it was more like, ‘I could play elsewhere, I’ve got family elsewhere, I got family in Georgia, I got family in Cleveland,’ and Pittsburgh was not too happy about that, rightfully so. I would never want to play for not only a rival, but a team that’s so close, that there’s such bad blood there.”
Maybe that’s damage control, or maybe it was walking back a threat to the Steelers organization, having sufficiently made the point: Hey, you don’t want me somewhere else, so pay me. But Heyward made it pretty clear that the Western Pennsylvania border is a line that he won’t cross, and perhaps most importantly, one his Cleveland-native wife has no interest jumping over.
“I was like, ‘Babe, I’m not going to Cleveland, you don’t have to worry about that.’ She felt a little bit sick about that,” Heyward recounted. “She is embroiled Black and Gold for all my career… We’re not going to Cleveland, I’ll tell you that.”
As fun as the thought would be, the logistics of such a fit might be tough, anyway. Even entering his age-36 season, Heyward should command a healthy salary that would be difficult for the cap-strapped Browns to make work. There’s also a hope that defensive tackle won’t even be a need for Cleveland next year. Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris each had decent campaigns last season, and while both are over 30 and not nearly on Heyward’s level, the Browns spent their second-round pick on Mike Hall, Jr. in the 2024 Draft.
Overall, the defensive line is going to be a strength, not a weakness for Cleveland going forward. Pro Football Focus has the unit ranked as one of the top five in the league, which is a spot they’ll probably stay at, so long as Myles Garrett is still at the peak of his powers.
Kaboly has stated on the radio that Heyward’s Cleveland comments were said in jest, which debunks the whole controversy. There’s still a year for bad blood to foment between Heyward and the Steelers, but it seems it’d have to get much, much worse before the Browns sticking it to the Steelers with a Heyward signing becomes a possibility.
Up Next