As they near their self-imposed, unofficial deadline for ending contract negotiations, the Steelers are talking with two of their top players — defensive end Cam Heyward and tight end Pat Freiermuth — about a possible extension.
Freiermuth is the most likely to receive a new contract because he is in the final year of his rookie deal and is the lowest-paid starting tight end in the NFL. The Steelers want to make sure they keep him around before he becomes a free agent after the 2024 season.
Heyward, 35, is a different matter. He is in the final year of a five-year contract that will pay him $16 million in 2024, and any extension would be for less money than his current deal.
The Steelers would lessen Heyward’s $22.4 million cap hit if they signed him to an extension, but that wouldn’t be the reason for a new contract. They have already decided to pay his salary and absorb his cap hit this season, regardless of what happens.
Heyward, who enters his 14th season with the team, has said he’d like to play several more years, preferably with the Steelers. If not, he said he would play somewhere else.
Heyward made his original demand for an extension in May when he said he was going to skip OTAs if he didn’t get a new deal. He eventually showed up at OTAs, anyway, and has been present ever since.
Heyward is coming off an injury-plagued season hampered by groin and knee issues, but he said he is fully recovered and ready to regain the form that made him a six-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time All-Pro. He did not appear in any of the Steelers three preseason games because the Steelers wanted to save him for the regular season.
The Steelers have taken a tough contract stance with a number of their former stars when they neared the end of their career, including Troy Polamalu and Hines Ward. That they are discussing an extension with Heyward would appear to indicate they believe he can still perform at a high level and not just giving him reverential treatment.
The Steelers have an unofficial policy they don’t negotiate contracts once the regular season starts, but there have been exceptions where discussions have been ongoing and spilled into the early part of the season. That’s what happened with safety Darren Perry in 1995, who signed a new deal after the third game of the season. That, though, has not happened since.
Meantime, extending Freiermuth would make sense because the Steelers have a number of consequential players who will be free agents after the season, including Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. They don’t have plans to extend any of those players before the start of the season.
What’s more, Freiermuth is not only the lowest-paid starting tight end in the league at $1.48 million in 2024, he ranks 47th among all tight ends. That means at least one-third of the tight ends who earn more aren’t even starters.
On top of all that, Freiermuth is expected to be a big part of new coordinator Arthur Smith’s offense and give Wilson a reliable receiving target in addition to George Pickens.
Freiermuth had only 32 catches last season after missing five games because of a hamstring injury. But with a new system and a veteran quarterback in place, Freiermuth should exceed his production from his first two years when he became only the second tight end in NFL history to have at least 60 catches in each of his first two seasons.
Fautanu watch
Troy Fautanu, the team’s No 1 pick, is expected to resume practice Monday, but it remains to be seen if he is a limited or active participant.
Fautanu missed the final two preseason games after injuring his knee in the first half of the opening game against the Houston Texans. The Steelers had already decided to elevate him to the starting lineup and keep him there for the start of the regular season, but his injury may have delayed the move.
Also, with the injury to guard Isaac Seumalo, the Steelers may elect not to start Fautanu because that would mean they would have two rookies and an untested guard in Spencer Anderson on the starting offensive line in Atlanta.
Seumalo, who sustained a pectoral muscle strain in practice last week, is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. His injury is similar to what happened in 2022 to safety Miles Killebrew, who injured his pectoral muscle on the first day of training camp but returned to play in the season opener.
But it is not the same as the pectoral injury sustained by T.J. Watt in the 2022 season opener in Cincinnati or the one incurred last year by linebacker Elandon Roberts. Watt missed seven games before returning; Roberts missed only one.
If Seumalo’s injury required surgery and caused him to miss the entire season, it is likely the Steelers would have moved Fautanu to guard. But, in the short term, they do not have plans to do that.
First Published: September 1, 2024, 5:27 p.m.
