There are likely moments nowadays when Cam Heyward looks around the Steelers locker room and wonders, 'who are all of these kids?'
Relatively speaking, Heyward, 32, isn't old. But seeing many of his contemporaries leave the game around the age which he is now could start to bring the finish line into view for the three-time All-Pro defensive end.
"I don't freaking know," Heyward joked when asked about the potential of his career winding down. "They're ready to ship me out to pasture right now. They treat me like Old Yeller out here. But hopefully I've got ten more years for you."
Ten years? Seems like a stretch, unless Heyward is the Tom Brady of defensive ends, or can convince the NFL to take a reasonable amount of contact out of the game.
Whether it's two more years, four more years, or even ten, Heyward's old pals are disappearing from the team's South Side practice facility. And many of those players have been leaders.
The latest, Vince Williams, elected to retire a couple of weeks ago at the age of 31. Maurkice Pouncey just walked away from the game at 31, the same age as David DeCastro, who may be bound for retirement due to injury.
Those are some big, established role models in the Steelers' locker room who are suddenly gone.
"There's difference voices," said Heyward, in search of his first Super Bowl appearance. "It's the veteran leadership, guys get a chance to speak more. You get a guy like Joe Haden. Not always the most talkative guy when it comes to being more vocal on our team. Joe can step up, Minkah (Fitzpatrick) can talk a little bit more, which is surprising. It's a chance for other guys to step up."
The change has been so dramatic that, when he looks across the line of scrimmage, he often doesn't know the name of who he is about to engage with.
"Nah, I won't know them until the regular season," he said.
Maybe he found out early on Monday, when Heyward got into a post-play scuffle with rookies Dan Moore Jr. and Kendrick Green. It was the third time in camp that Hayward and Moore mixed it up.
"It's the competitive nature of football," Moore Jr. said, adding that everything was smoothed over after the skirmish.
The young guys seem to be pushing the veteran Heyward. Well, them and back-to-back padded practices, as was the case the past weekend. So how is his body holding up with all of the extra abuse?
"Wow, wow, wow, my gosh," he joked. "You guys act like I should be doing Jazzercise or something. I'm okay, I feel good! I should be doing stuff with Richard Simmons. I'm good. Let me be, I'm cool, I'm feeling great."
But he knows that could change.
"Talk to me in November or December and we'll see where I'm at."
