{"id":847089,"date":"2026-04-01T12:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847089\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:55:14","slug":"connor-heyward-reveals-free-agency-suitors-why-he-signed-with-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847089\/","title":{"rendered":"Connor Heyward Reveals Free Agency Suitors, Why He Signed With Raiders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Pittsburgh Steelers TE Connor Heyward made the tough decision to leave the Steelers and sign with Las Vegas Raiders, but Vegas was far from his only suitor. On the Not Just Football podcast<\/a> hosted by his brother Cam, Connor revealed which teams wanted him in free agency, including the Steelers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinnesota was interested, Miami was interested, Steelers wanted me back. Danny Smith, once he found out I was still a free agent, he was going to run upstairs, and then right after that I signed,\u201d Heyward said. \u201cThere was a lot of interest, it was more so people didn\u2019t really think I would leave Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heyward explained why he ultimately chose Las Vegas over a return to Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to Coach [Klint] Kubiak and [John] Spytek, the GM, and the plans they had for my offensive usage outside of special teams. I know special teams is what I\u2019m gonna do and that\u2019s a part of this fullback responsibility and role, but I was just excited to feel like I was wanted,\u201d he said. \u201cNot saying I wasn\u2019t wanted here, but it\u2019s like being recruited again and hearing the things you can do and some of the things you haven\u2019t done in awhile, but knowing that you can do still.\u201d<\/p>\n

Las Vegas is offering him the opportunity to have a bigger offensive role as the pure fullback within its offense. It doesn\u2019t sound as if that\u2019s something the Steelers were interested in, and it\u2019s not something Heyward has done full-time during his four seasons in the league. But he has experience playing an H-back role from his time at Michigan State, and he was the quarterback for the Steelers\u2019 version of the tush push last season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that Heyward had multiple suitors, as he\u2019s known as a strong special teamer (hence Danny Smith\u2019s interest in a reunion). But it\u2019s clear that he wants to show he\u2019s more than that with a role on offense, and Las Vegas was offering that. It\u2019s a chance for Heyward to get out of his comfort zone with a new team away from his brother and also show that he\u2019s capable of playing a bigger offensive role than he had with the Steelers.<\/p>\n

Even though Cam has never gone through the free agency process, he was still someone whom Connor consulted throughout it before ultimately deciding that Las Vegas was the best fit for him. For the Steelers, it leaves a void in their tight end room and hurts their special teams units, and tight end is now a need with the draft approaching. But it\u2019s exciting for Heyward to have a new opportunity and go somewhere he can make a name for himself outside of just being Cam\u2019s little brother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Pittsburgh Steelers TE Connor Heyward made the tough decision to leave the Steelers and sign with Las…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[4034,28205,7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,33852,525,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-847089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-cameron-heyward","9":"tag-connor-heyward","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-las-vegas","12":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","13":"tag-lasvegas","14":"tag-lasvegasraiders","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-not-just-football","17":"tag-raiders","18":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116329560699412844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847089","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=847089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}