DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: They’ll buckle for Cam

DK’s Daily Shot of Steelers: They’ll buckle for Cam

[Music] See, one of the benefits of covering any sort of contract stalemate between your favorite football team and one of your favorite football team’s favorite players is that you can always skip to the end. You can always fast forward. Good morning to you. Good Tuesday morning. I’m Dan Kawachovich of DK Pittsburgh Sports. This is Daily Shot of Steelers. It comes your way bright and early every weekday. If you’re into hockey andor baseball, I also offer daily shots of Penguins and Pirates in the same place that you found this. Cam Hayward did speak yesterday with reporters who cover the team. This was after practice at St. Vincent College. I was up there as well. Cam didn’t back down in any way from his stance that the Steelers need to restructure his contract. He acknowledged that he’s having a hold in and he went so far as to affirm that he’s willing to miss regular season games if that’s what it takes. Here’s one minute of what I felt was the most revealing sequence as to how he feels. Um, looking for my contract to be addressed. uh you know um honestly looking to be valued um in my eyes uh when I look around and you know at my position um I think I’m like what 22nd as a DTEK I’m 36 as a D lineman um and you know I know what I bring to this team um and what I’m capable of on and off the field um and so it’s hard for me to you know have after the year I’ve had to really justify playing at the number I’m playing at. Um, you know, I understand I signed a contract last year. Um, to be but to be completely honest with you, um, when I signed that, I told them, you know, when I have a allp pro year, expect me to come back. Um, and you can look at the contract and see what it was. But, uh, you know, I think everybody kind of giggled a little bit, but in my heads, uh, I use it as motivation to improve. Now, I don’t happen to see eye to eye with Cam on this specific subject. I made that clear on the most recent double shot. Went so far as to call the move dumb. Certainly not the player or the person. Anybody who knows Cam knows he’s not dumb. But the move, that’s fair game. I do a lot of dumb things, too. and to address things that he brought up in this setting for the first time. I wasn’t wild about hearing him explain that he told the Steelers, “When I have an allp pro year, expect me to come back.” I mean, there’s a process for this sort of thing. It’s called a contract negotiation. If Cam has an agent that’s worth even a fraction of what Cam’s giving him, that agent says, “Hang on. If you believe you’re going to be an allp pro, why wouldn’t we put into this contract a bonus for being an allpro? Or why wouldn’t we set it up so the contract could be reopened after a year under a certain circumstance? Or for that matter, if you’re really going to bet on yourself, and Cam believes in himself as much as anybody I’ve ever known, just just sign a one-year deal. Why’d you sign for three? This is stuff that agents are paid to do for their clients. Cam doesn’t need to be the one navigating all this. Now, I also wasn’t wild about the remainder of that same quote where Cam said, “I think whenever he made this allpro comment to the Steelers management, I think everyone kind of giggled a bit, but in my head, I used that as motivation to go out there and prove it. These guys, these guys couldn’t respect Cam any more than they have, and I’m sure that they still do. Let’s remember that the team itself took a risk in putting this contract forth. Cam was coming off a significant injury and related surgery. They committed eight figures to him, not because they were skeptical or that he’d need to use it as some sort of motivation or whatever. It’s just, you know, just all of this is so cringe on the cam end. And you know what? It doesn’t matter. That’s the main feeling on this subject that I had driving off the Saint. Vincent College campus yesterday. It’s all irrelevant. everything we’ve just heard, everything we’re about to see, hear, and read over the next week or two, or however long it is that this takes to get settled, because it’s going to get settled regardless of how you feel about it, regardless of how I feel about it, regardless of how Cam feels about it, and yes, regardless of how anyone associated with the Steelers might for real feel about it, because when you’re talking about Omar Khan, Mike Tomlin, and Art Rooney, the three men who would be making this call in some form. You’re talking about three guys who are just big softies when it comes to these scenarios. And I’m not even sure that’s a knock. It’s just who they are. They were going to hear TJ Watt make it plain that he’s gonna be the highest paid defender in some category or other, however they’d find a way to frame it. And they were going to put up with TJ making the weird peace sign on Instagram, whatever that still ever meant, just like they’re going to stand off to the side and have Cam figuratively stomp his feet. And they’ll pay him. They’ll pay him. And they’ll do it in a way that’s going to open them up to similar circumstances in the future. and they won’t care because they see Cam, they love Cam, they see TJ, they love TJ. It’s what they do. So, just know right now that this is like going to the theater and seeing Gandhi for the first time. Meaning, they show you the ending at the beginning. They get it out of the way. Well, this is the ending. When we come back, J1Q This segment of Daily Shot is brought to you by our good friends at Mike’s Beer Bar. They’re located on Federal Street, directly across from PNC Park. Mike has more than 500 beers on tap, including from more than 50 local breweries. Stop in and say hello. Tell Mike we sent you. Mike’s Beer Bar. [Music] And today’s J1 Q comes from Jim who says DK aren’t Derek Harmon and Cayano Benton fighting for the number one and number two spots on the defensive line because Cam Hayward as a team leader is ridiculous. A hold in on a contract that has two years left. Maybe just let him kick rocks now. Dude used to be my favorite player. He has surely shown his true colors and those colors are one of a guy who wants money over winning. Yeah, Jim, respectfully, I’m going to cut you off there. There’s another four or five sentences that are all in that same spirit. And I I’ve gotten a lot of feedback to the programming that I’ve done on Cam’s decision to the column that I wrote for the DK Pittsburgh Sports app. It’s actually on top of our homepage this morning if you want to check it out on our app. And it’s all over the place. There are people who are disillusioned. There are people who are, “Wow, this isn’t the guy I thought he was.” There are also people who are or at least sound totally stunned that anybody would ever think anything negative of Cam, much less say it out loud. And then you also have people who are just taking his side in general because they look at what he’s making versus what other NFL defensive linemen are making relative to his performance in the 2024 season, which was excellent. But this Jim, if you don’t mind my just being blunt here, I could save this and read it back to you in a month and you’d be like, “Ooh, really? I said that? Ouch. No, I didn’t mean that. I was just mad because I’m kind of hoping that you don’t because it’s not a great uh football position for someone to take. Harmon and Benton and Ya Black aren’t ready to be what you would want them to be. Not because they lack talent, not because they lack personality or potential or whatever. They they’re going to be good, but they’re not there yet. And if you want to hear what I’m talking about, this was one minute between me and Harmon and coming off the field after practice yesterday in Latroe. Derek Harman, Pittsburgh Steelers. How’d it go the other night? It went good, man. Um, I feel like for myself, I could play a little better. Um, but just got to come out next game and be better. Wasn’t the speed of the game something that no matter how much you practice it out here, you’re out there and it’s like, you know, you see NFL first teamers? Most definitely. Um, it’s a difference. Um, just got to adjust to the game. You say you want to get better. What What are you looking at after filming? What do you want to see? Um, this little things part of my game that I can do better as far as my pass rush and um, win on my first move. Now, later on, correct me if I’m wrong, it looked like you were getting stronger as the game went. Is that my imagination? You can say that that it was my imagination. No, that u you What went right for you there? Just more of a push, more aggressive, being yourself? No, just really just getting um the flow for the game. Um, and just really just working on what I know. Less than a half for you. Just what’s it like being out there, man? NFL uniform, NFL stadium. It’s a blessing. It’s a blessing. Now, full context. It It was a billion degrees. The sun was out the entire time. Mike Tomlin had them gone for two hard hours, and the young man was very kind to grant me the time that he did in a spontaneous ask that I had for him coming off. But it’s only now hitting him. Hope you could hear that for yourself, where he is and what he’s doing and the magnitude of it and the challenge that’s in front of him. And if you think that’s just going to magically show up between now and the 7th of September and he’s going to replace Cam Hayward, that’s going to be a hard no from this direction. Also, and at least semi-related, would everyone please stop with the same tired joke about how you could cut Connor Hayward and give his salary to the big brother. You have not struck comedic gold with that. It’s not original. Everyone’s doing it. I appreciate the question. I appreciate all of you. We will have one last double shot from Latroe later this afternoon. That’ll be around 5:30 p.m. And you can find that among other places on the DK Pittsburgh Sports app, which you can find for free on both Apple and Android devices. Just open up where you get your apps and type in DK Pittsburgh Sports. We’d be really happy to have you. [Music]

Management will buckle for Cam Heyward.

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