{"id":352734,"date":"2025-09-08T23:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/352734\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T23:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:08:11","slug":"fittipaldo-calls-cam-heyward-his-biggest-concern-laments-pathetic-performance-from-defensive-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/352734\/","title":{"rendered":"Fittipaldo Calls Cam Heyward His ‘Biggest Concern’, Laments ‘Pathetic’ Performance From Defensive Line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdowns on Sunday, en route to a season-opening win for the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, the team\u2019s performance was far from perfect. Arguably their weakest link, yet again, was their inability to stop the run. That\u2019s an area Cam Heyward really struggled, according to Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest concern for me, I\u2019m going back to Heyward,\u201d Fittipaldo said on The North Shore Drive<\/a> podcast on Monday. \u201cEven last year, Cam Heyward in his prime, could just bull rush the heck out of somebody, where he could get to the quarterback. If he didn\u2019t get there, he could wreak havoc, where somebody else could come in to clean it up. I didn\u2019t see that one time from him today\u2026 It\u2019s a major, major concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming into this game already down a starter with Derrick Harmon out, it was crucial for Heyward to have a good game. He certainly was not great<\/a>. Considering the lack of depth at the position, his subpar performance came at a poor time. Heyward had some good moments, batting down a pass and making a tackle in the backfield.<\/p>\n

However, it was mostly an alarming performance from Heyward. He figured out his contract situation<\/a> on Saturday, and the Steelers probably hoped that with the drama finally in the rearview mirror, he could turn the page and return to the high caliber of play we\u2019re used to seeing from him. Whether he just felt a hangover from the contract dilemma, or something else, he simply didn\u2019t perform well on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The problems extend far beyond just Cam Heyward, though. Fittipaldo wasn\u2019t happy with any of the defensive linemen this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, 299 yards against the Ravens in the playoffs, they spent the entire offseason trying to address it,\u201d Fittipaldo said. \u201cAnd you come out with that performance? It was pathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to argue with the disdain Fittipaldo feels here. Stopping the run was arguably the Steelers\u2019 biggest weakness at the end of the 2024 season, and they used almost half of their draft picks to bolster the defensive line in April. And yet, it looks no better than it did back in January.<\/p>\n

Breece Hall ran the ball 19 times for 107 yards, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. Justin Fields scored twice with his legs, and ran 12 times for 48 yards. In total, the Jets picked up 182 yards on the ground, well over 100 more than the Steelers\u2019 53. Those numbers are downright abysmal, and it shows the lack of impact Heyward, Keeanu Benton and others made on the interior.<\/p>\n

Thankfully for Pittsburgh, Aaron Rodgers carried them to a win<\/a> this week. But it\u2019s probably not realistic to expect your 41-year old quarterback to do that every Sunday. At some point soon the defensive line is going to need to be much better, and that effort starts with Cam Heyward.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdowns on Sunday, en route to a season-opening win for the Pittsburgh Steelers. However,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[4034,7,1500,14427,7827,2085],"class_list":{"0":"post-352734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-cameron-heyward","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-keeanu-benton","11":"tag-north-shore-drive","12":"tag-ray-fittipaldo","13":"tag-yahya-black"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115171197372620880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}