{"id":816570,"date":"2026-03-17T07:04:49","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816570\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T07:04:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:04:49","slug":"connor-heyward-opens-up-about-leaving-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/816570\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Heyward opens up about leaving Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/\">SteelersNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Former Pittsburgh Steelers tight end and special teams ace <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-lose-versatile-weapon-in-free-agency\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Connor Heyward<\/a> revealed in a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FwQOuFM_M2c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Raiders\u2019 columnist Paul Gutierrez<\/a> that his decision to leave the Steel City for Las Vegas was not an easy one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cHonestly, it was so hard. Talking to everybody, I\u2019m still getting messages just saying thank you for the person you were. I\u2019m super grateful for my time in Pittsburgh and obviously playing with Cam,\u201d Heyward said. \u201cYou don\u2019t usually get to play with your siblings, let alone at a professional level. So I didn\u2019t take it for granted. I loved going in everyday to work with Cam\u2019s locker being right next to mine. That was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Heyward spent the first four seasons of his NFL career alongside his older brother, Cam, with the Steelers. The Radiers gave Connor Heyward a two-year, $5.5 max value deal. He\u2019s guaranteed to make $2 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Heyward played in 68 games for the Steelers, catching 44 passes for 379 yards and three touchdowns. Last season, he took snaps when Pittsburgh called its tush push play, picking up 43 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/connor-heyward-opens-up-about-leaving-steelers\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/connor-heyward-opens-up-about-leaving-steelers\/\">Click here to read more from SteelersNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared on SteelersNOW.com. Former Pittsburgh Steelers tight end and special teams ace Connor Heyward revealed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[265,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-816570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116243245860466978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816570","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=816570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}