Cameron Heyward went down in pain during Steelers training camp practice, but it may not be as serious as initially feared. Here’s how he gave us a scare.
As I scrolled through Twitter, I held my breath when I heard that Cameron Heyward went down with an injury during Steelers training camp practice. During the third rep of team sessions in ‘seven shots,’ Pittsburgh’s three-time All-Pro defender went down to the ground in obvious pain after a run play.
Eventually, Heyward was able to get up under his own power and limp off the field, but he was quickly carted to the Steelers locker room where he would be looked at. This felt like an absolute sucker punch to the gut.
Fortunately, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief as Heyward later returned to the field in street clothes, as Jeff Hawthorn of 93.7 The Fan shares this photo. This was some excellent news.
#Steelers Cam Heyward returns to the field @937theFan pic.twitter.com/gjWCH9u5PO
— Jeff Hathhorn (@jhathhorn) August 18, 2022
Upon his return, Heyward could be seen joking around with teammates and coaches on the sidelines. It also appeared that he was icing his lower shin/ankle area. While we don’t know the extent of the injury, it’s probably pretty safe to say that the Pittsburgh Steelers avoided disaster today.
Cam Heyward injury could have been disastrous for the Steelers
It appears the Steelers avoided a potentially devastating blow to their season before it even started. Immediately after Cam Heyward went down, I instantly envisioned what a season without Cam would look like… and it wouldn’t be good. Behind only T.J. Watt, Heyward is the second-best player on the team, for my money. His value to the team is significant and his impact would have been hard to stomach — especially watching how this unit performed without Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu last year.
The loss of Heyward would have made the interior defensive line — arguably the greatest strength on the team — instantly just an average unit at best. Fortunately, it looks like Heyward is going to be okay.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Mike Tomlin shuts down Heyward for the remainder of training camp and the preseason because of this scare. Of course, there’s always a chance that he’s not able to go for a little while anyway.
I’m sure we will get an update on Cameron Heyward’s injury soon, but for now, it looks like the Pittsburgh Steelers avoided disaster today at training camp practice. Let’s hope for a very encouraging diagnosis and that he will be back on the field by the regular-season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at the latest.