Pro Football Focus<\/a> has been unveiling its top 101 players list following the 2025 season, with rankings solely based off of play in the last year and without regard for positional value. With spots 101-21 revealed, Heyward is the lone Steeler to make it so far, landing at the No. 21 spot. You can read PFF\u2019s blurb on him below:<\/p>\nNow 36, Heyward has continued to defy Father Time in recent seasons. In 2025, he was a bulwark with a 90.4 PFF overall grade, the best among qualified interior defenders. Heyward earned at least an 84.4 PFF grade in both run defense and pass-rushing, making landmark contributions on nearly a weekly basis. Also impressive was Heyward\u2019s 3.8% missed tackle rate, the third-lowest clip among any defender with 700 or more snaps.<\/p>\n
Heyward ranked above several prominent NFL defensive linemen, including Jeffrey Simmons (22), Quinnen Williams (28), and Kobie Turner (58). Several former Steelers have also made the list: now-Dolphins safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (75), Rams guard Kevin Dotson (46), Browns linebacker Devin Bush (43), and Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens (34).<\/p>\n
While PFF\u2019s player grades are controversial, to say the least, among NFL fans and media, Heyward\u2019s ranking isn\u2019t that much of a shock to those who watched him play in 2025. If anything, the veteran got stronger as the season went on, logging 3.5 sacks, nine tackles for loss, and 78 combined tackles en route to a second-team All-Pro bid. Most impressive might be Heyward\u2019s iron man status: Despite his age, he logged the most snaps of any NFL defensive lineman in 2025 per PFF.<\/p>\n
Entering the 2026 season, Heyward will be turning 37 and about to play his first NFL season without Mike Tomlin as his head coach. There has been some retirement speculation, but Heyward remains under contract for the upcoming season and hasn\u2019t mentioned he\u2019ll be hanging up the cleats just yet.<\/p>\n
PFF will release its 20-1 ranking Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cam Heyward might\u2019ve played his 2025 season at 36 years old, but he\u2019s still recognized as one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6,520,57,2374,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-764401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-pittsburgh","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116102710097258549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764401","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=764401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}