{"id":896839,"date":"2026-05-21T00:48:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/896839\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T00:48:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T00:48:17","slug":"michael-heldman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/896839\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Heldman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Agreed to terms, 4\/26\/26\u2026In his five-year, 53-game, 42-start career, made 120 tackles (64 solo), 34.5 tackles for loss for 137 yards, 19.0 sacks for 99 yards, five pass breakups, four forced fumbles, and 29 quarterback hurries\u2026Consensus first team All-MAC honoree as senior in 2025 and Hero Sports second-team G5 All-American\u2026Concluded career by starting 25 consecutive games on the defensive line\u2026One of only eight players in school history to earn four Academic All-Mid-American Conference selections\u2026One-time CSC Academic All-District honoree (2025)\u2026Set the school&#8217;s record for quarterback hurries for career (29), season (10 in 2023), and game (5 vs. Massachusetts, Oct. 25, 2025)\u2026In the school&#8217;s career records, concluded career ranked No. 9 in games played (53), No. 6 in sacks (19), No. 10 in tackles for loss (34), No. 10 in forced fumbles (4), No. 14 in yards from tackles for loss (133), and No. 11 in yards from sacks (99)\u2026In Central Michigan season records, he ranked No. 4 in sacks (10.5 in 2025), No. 14 in tackles for loss (16.0 in 2025), and No. 2 in quarterback hurries (9 in 2025)\u2026Concluded career with four 2.0 sack games and eight 2.0 tackles for loss games\u2026As a redshirt senior defensive lineman in 2025, started all 13 games at DE\u2026Earned CSC Academic All-District, Academic All-MAC and named to NFF Hampshire Honor Society\u2026One of four team captains\u2026On year, ranked No. 5 on team with 48 tackles (24 solo), a team-high 16.5 stops for loss for 64 yards, a team-high 10.5 sacks for 48 yards, four pass breakups and a team-high nine quarterback hurries with two forced fumbles\u2026Nationally, concluded the year ranked No. 12 in sacks (0.81 per game) and No. 14 in stops for loss (1.27 per game)\u2026In MAC, ranked No. 4 in stops for loss (1.27 per game) and No. 3 in sacks (0.81 per game)\u2026Finished the year with three 2.0 sack games and five 2.0 tackles for loss games\u2026Finished with one tackle, 0.5 stops for loss in GameAbove Sports Bowl vs. Northwestern\u2026Totaled three solo tackles, a season-high 3.0 tackles for loss for six yards, and one sack for four yards in season finale vs. Toledo\u2026Made five tackles (three solo), 2.5 tackles for loss for 10 yards, 2.0 sacks for nine yards, and a quarterback hurry at Kent State\u2026Finished with four tackles, 2.0 sacks, 2.0 TFL, two quarterback hurries and two pass breakups vs. Buffalo, earning MAC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts\u2026Tallied a career-high tying six tackles at Western Michigan\u2026Finished with a tackle, a career-high and school-record five QB hurries, and two pass breakups vs. UMass\u2026Registered five tackles, 2.0 stops for loss for 14 yards, and a sack for six yards at Bowling Green\u2026Made five tackles and 1.0 stop for loss at Akron\u2026Finished with five tackles (two solo), 1.5 sacks for four yards, 1.5 stops for loss and a QB hurry vs. Eastern Michigan\u2026Tallied five tackles (two solo), 2.0 sacks\/stops for loss of seven yards and forced a fumble vs. Wagner\u2026Made one tackle for loss at Michigan\u2026Made one tackle at Pittsburgh\u2026Made a then-career-high six tackles (four solo) with one sack for 7 yards and 1.0 tackle for loss, and forced a fumble in season opener at San Jose State\u2026As redshirt junior defensive lineman, played in all 12 games with 12 starts at DE\u2026Academic All-MAC\u2026Led Chippewas with eight QB hurries, finished with 28 tackles with 6.0 stops for loss for 22 yards, and 4.0 sacks\u2026Finished with season-high four solo tackles in finale at NIU\u2026Made three tackles (one solo) with 1.0 sack\/QB hurry at Toledo\u2026Made a tackle for loss\/hurry vs. Bowling Green\u2026Totaled four tackles (three solo) with 2.0 sacks\/stops for loss for eight yards at Miami (Ohio)\u2026Finished with two QB hurries, four tackles and a split-sack for three yards at EMU\u2026Made two tackles, 1.0 tackle for loss, 0.5 sack, and a quarterback hurry vs. San Diego State\u2026Finished with two tackles and a quarterback hurry at Florida International\u2026Totaled two tackles and a QB hurry in opener vs. Central Connecticut State\u2026As redshirt sophomore in 2023, played in 11 of 12 games with five starts at DE\u2026Academic All-MAC\u2026Concluded season with 22 tackles (13 solo), 4.5 tackles for loss for 30 yards, 2.5 sacks for 20 yards, one forced fumble, one pass breakup and a school-record 10 quarterback hurries\u2026Finished with a team-high three quarterback hurries and one tackle in finale vs. Toledo\u2026Made two tackles, including one stop for four yard loss at Western Michigan\u2026Totaled two tackles, including 0.5 sack vs. UNI\u2026Two tackles at Ball State\u2026Made three tackles (three solo), 2.0 stops for loss for 15 yards, 1.0 sack for nine yards, forced a fumble and two QB hurries vs. Akron\u2026Made two tackles with a QB hurry at Buffalo\u2026Finished with four tackles (three solo) vs. Eastern Michigan\u2026Made three tackles at Notre Dame\u2026Totaled three quarterback hurries with one pass breakup vs. New Hampshire\u2026Made two tackles, 1.0 sack, and a quarterback hurry in season opener at Michigan State (9\/1)\u2026As a redshirt freshman in 2022, played in all 12 games with 11 starts on defensive line\u2026Academic All-MAC selection\u2026Started all 11 games at defensive end\u2026Made 19 tackles (12 solo), registered 7.0 tackles for loss for 17 yards, made 2.0 sacks for seven yards, forced one fumble and totaled two quarterback hurries\u2026Finished with two tackles in the season finale at Eastern Michigan\u2026Totaled two tackles vs. Western Michigan\u2026Totaled three tackles (one solo) at Northern Illinois\u2026Finished with one solo tackle, 1.0 tackle for loss vs. Bowling Green\u2026Made two tackles (two solo) with 1.0 tackle for loss vs. Ball State\u2026 made a career-high five tackles (four solo) with a career-high 3.5 tackles for loss for 10 yards, 1.5 sack for four yards and forced a fumble vs. Bucknell\u2026Made first career start vs. South Alabama\u2026Made one tackle (solo) with a quarterback hurry in season opener at Oklahoma State\u2026Redshirted first season as true freshman in 2021\u2026Appeared in four games on the defensive line\u2026Credited with three tackles\u2026Graduate of Romeo (Mich.) HS, where he played three years for Coach Curt Rienas\u2026First-team Division 1 All-State selection as a defensive lineman\u2026Named All-Region by the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association in 2020\u2026Named to the All-Macomb Area Conference Red First Team in 2020\u2026Macomb County Tier 1 All-Star team selection\u2026Recorded 19 sacks, 10 tackles-for-loss and four forced fumbles in 2020\u2026Ranked No. 38 on the Detroit News Blue Chip List \u2026 rated a three-star recruit by Rivals\u2026Born Michael Heldman on January 2, 2003\u2026Majored in Communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Agreed to terms, 4\/26\/26\u2026In his five-year, 53-game, 42-start career, made 120 tackles (64 solo), 34.5 tackles for loss&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":["post-896839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-saints","tag-football","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-saints","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanssaints","tag-nfl","tag-saints"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116609817179799111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896839","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=896839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}