For the past five seasons, Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey has been a fixture on the Pittsburgh special teams. Meanwhile, during the same five-season stretch, Heyward-Bey has caught 33 passes, 21 of those in 2015. With the Steelers’ wide receiver depth chart about to get turned on its head, can the Steelers afford to give Heyward-Bey another contract if he cannot contribute on offense?
The case to keep-The contributions Heyward-Bey makes goes well beyond the boxscore. By all accounts, he’s a tremendous teammate and mentor to younger players. Considering he’s a league minimum guy, getting him back under contract makes a ton of sense.
The case to pass-With an Antonio Brown trade on the horizon, getting guys who can come in and catch passes will be a top priority. Beyond JuJu Smith-Schuster there are more questions than answers on the wide receiver depth chart so every spot is going to be precious.
What we would do?
We’d sign Heyward-Bey to another one-year contract. They can let Justin Hunter walk and find a more competent pass catcher in the draft or free agency. Heyward-Bey does more of the team than just cover punts and with Pittsburgh trying to get back to being about football, can’t let one of the genuine good guys go.
