{"id":918895,"date":"2026-06-14T18:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T18:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/918895\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T18:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T18:48:15","slug":"raiders-fb-connor-heyward-describes-transition-to-new-team-position","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/918895\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders FB Connor Heyward Describes Transition To New Team, Position"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost Connor Heyward to the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, and with the Raiders, Heyward is moving to a more traditional fullback role.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Movin\u2019 The Chains on SiriusXM NFL Radio<\/a> earlier this week, Heyward discussed his transition after primarily playing tight end with the Steelers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like the transition is going well. Obviously new to me, playing strictly fullback. In Pittsburgh played more of the tight end position, played fullback at times and the tush push last year,\u201d Heyward said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m picking up on it. It\u2019s the West Coast [offense], but it\u2019s something that you have to know on the back of your hand and be able to play fast, because you can do so many things within this offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers never fully embraced the idea of Heyward playing fullback. He did serve, mostly successfully, as the team\u2019s tush-push quarterback last season, which led to him scoring two rushing touchdowns on 15 carries.<\/p>\n

Had Heyward stayed with the Steelers, it\u2019s worth wondering if Mike McCarthy would\u2019ve made him a primary fullback in his West Coast scheme.<\/p>\n

The Steelers drafted Indiana\u2019s Riley Nowakowski to play fullback, but he\u2019s also being used creatively at tight end<\/a> in offseason workouts. It feels like his addition was a direct response to Heyward leaving.<\/p>\n

After spending the first four seasons of his career with the Steelers, Heyward said he\u2019s moved on and is fully embracing Las Vegas and the Raiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve embraced my role. I\u2019ve embraced the people here. I\u2019ve embraced the city here. I\u2019ve moved on to this chapter,\u201d Heyward said. \u201cI loved Pittsburgh, but I feel like I\u2019m gonna transition well. And I feel like I\u2019ve transitioned well up to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a great new opportunity for Heyward to have a more prominent role, and he\u2019ll be doing so under an up-and-coming playcaller in Klint Kubiak.<\/p>\n

Heyward is also a veteran presence on offense for the Raiders. The team did sign Kirk Cousins, but with Fernando Mendoza, Ashton Jeanty, Brock Bowers and second-year receivers Jack Bech and Dont\u2019e Thornton, Heyward is one of the elder statesmen on offense.<\/p>\n

Drafting Nowakowski helps fill the void, but Heyward\u2019s consistency on special teams and reliable play when called upon on offense will be missed by the Steelers.<\/p>\n

In Las Vegas, Heyward is looking to make the most of his new role and help the Raiders as they try to be a dark horse in the loaded AFC West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers lost Connor Heyward to the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, and with the Raiders,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2065],"tags":[28205,7,1744,393,2455,2454,38076,6,525,99294,34809],"class_list":["post-918895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-las-vegas-raiders","tag-connor-heyward","tag-football","tag-las-vegas","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-lasvegas","tag-lasvegasraiders","tag-movin-the-chains","tag-nfl","tag-raiders","tag-riley-nowakowski","tag-siriusxm-nfl-radio"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116749959398080082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918895","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=918895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}