Cam Heyward just said on @DVERADIO morning show that he told Mike Tomlin he wanted to play fewer snaps this year to stay fresh. So apparently Week 1 was not an outlier in that area.
Can’t argue with his results in that game tho

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) September 14, 2021

On Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward played just 66 percent of the defensive snaps. He wasn’t injured and he certainly wasn’t struggling. No, according to Heyward, it was done at his request to let him stay fresh no only during the game but throughout the season.

Heyward was dominant on Sunday in his limited reps. He had four tackles, a sack and two passes batted down at the line of scrimmage. Heyward was also responsible for 12 total pressures on Bills quarterback Josh Allen.

I love that Heyward spoke up. Head coach Mike Tomlin is notorious for running his best players into the ground with excessive reps. Maybe if he sees this from Heyward he will recognize the error in his ways and do this will more of his star players so they can not only give better effort in the game but still be fresh in this now-longer NFL regular season.