hey folks good morning and welcome to another episode of Steelers morning rush I'm Alan Saunders it is Wednesday September 4th Pittsburgh Steelers practice today on the southide I'll be there with all the coverage for Steelers now.com but today we're not going to talk about the Steelers pre the season opener against the Atlanta Falcons which is now just a few days away we're not going to talk about everything that Mike tomman said at his press conference yesterday the first one of the 2024 season we're going to talk about cam Hayward and his contract because people are losing their fraking minds over this which is a great deal for the Steelers I do not understand cam award signed a two-year contract extension which is a basically a new three-year deal worth a total of $45 million on Tuesday and I don't understand why but Steelers fans have just decided they hate this idea I don't get it this is perhaps the most team-friendly deal I have ever seen a Steelers player sign in the time I've been with the team the the Steelers gave nothing in new money that is guaranteed to cam Hayward the only thing they guaranteed is the 2024 salary that they were absolutely 100% going to pay him anyway this is basically just a series of one-year team options the Steelers can decide after this year if they want to pay cam Hayward in 2025 or not and if the answer is not they walk away from the deal owing nothing more than they were going to pay cam Hayward this year anyway and if they pay him in 2025 and decide they don't want to pay him in 2026 they can walk away from the deal owing him nothing more than they were going to pay him this season anyway and the deal saves $9.8 million under this year's salary cap so that the Steelers can go extend another player which they're probably going to do today tomorrow and my guess would be that'll be Pat faremouth maybe more I mean I don't think a pat faremouth extension is going to take $10 million to add to this year's salary cap might be able to get a couple done with that money I I just I don't I don't understand this I I understand the entire negative about cam Hayward cam the negative narrative cam Hayward is an all-time great stealer he's the second best Steelers defensive lineman in team history he's an absolutely great human being just won the Walter pton Man of the Year award been voted by his teammates as a captain 10 years in a row so like there I what is there not to like about cam Hayward the person and then if you want to try to say okay well this is just brass tax this is just dollars and cents you can't have any emotion here you can't have any feeling it's a great deal Financial too there is absolutely zero risk to this for the Pittsburgh Steelers all they're saying is you say how much you think you're worth and then as we go we'll decide if you are you aren't I mean I don't know maybe they could get into a situation where heyward's just okay but maybe not quite worth the 14 and a half million then you just renegotiate the total down the road if you think you want to keep him there's nothing holding the Steelers to this contract if they don't want it to Beyond 2024 and and let's not pretend like the Steelers don't need cam Hayward look at the rest of their defensive line Larry oen jobi a five years younger player is far more injury-prone than cam Hayward is neither of them are are long-term pieces here but certainly Hayward looks like the better short-term piece Keanu Benton's won that they have nothing else in terms of proven depth or or you know highly drafted young players on this defensive line that seem like they're going to be part of a future starting rotation Steelers also have a huge laundry list of needs going forward into the 2025 off season they still as we've talked about at nauseum need another wide receiver to go alongside George pickings uh if they don't extend Pat fouth they're going to need a tight end they if they don't extend Nai Harris they're going to need a running back if they don't extend Dante Jackson they're going to need a quarterback you can't do all that in one offseason you have to take care of some of those things ahead of time if this move lets the Steelers keep Fruth and keep Hayward under contract for 2025 that's a good thing and if Hayward turns out not to be worth it and all it does is get them fouth under contract and they cut Hayward after this season that's still a good thing there's absolutely no way this can go poorly for the Steelers I do not understand any of the anxiety about this this deal and like cam Hayward was not bad last year he at 34 years old came back back and played early through a major surgery that probably should have kept him out several weeks more than it did came back early at well far less than 100% And was still one of the better defensive players on the team his weighted his his approximate value by pro football reference was 14th on the team last year 14th out of 22 starters out of 53 guys he only played in 11 games and he was 14th he's a great run stopper yeah he didn't have the pass rush that he had in the past even if he just comes back in as a great run stopper he's probably worth at least the next year of this deal like I I don't I don't understand any of this it doesn't make any sense to me why you would not want a guy like cam Hayward around why you would not want the team to sign an essentially risk-free deal to keep him around uh it just boggles my mind it's like people I I I don't know I don't understand where this negative towards cam Hayward came from I I think he like maybe you could make a good argument that he shouldn't have come back last year that people saw him play hurt last year and somehow that soured them on him when really it should have been the exact opposite here's you know a fraking hero who's pushing through injury to do what he can because the team needs him uh and instead uh I don't know people just want a crab on the guy I I don't get it and and people want to bring up his age like yeah is this old is 35 old for a football player absolutely but there are lots of defensive linemen that played into their late 30s it is not unprecedented for defensive linemen to play at a high level well into their 30s Clay Campbell just signed off another year he's 38 like that's this contract won't even get Hayward to that point this will be years 35 36 37 and Hayward has always been a better player than Kus Campbell so I I don't really understand this I this is a good deal for the Steelers it's not a good deal for Kim Hayward in my opinion but I mean he wants to be here and I think he made that clear he made that clear by coming back to OTAs and and Reporting you know he made that clear with this contract this is a team-friendly deal this is a good deal for the Steelers I just uh I don't understand how anyone could have anything negative to say about it at all really I mean I just don't the Steelers can go out and draft cam hayward's replacement next off season they probably should I would make defensive tackle the number one priority for this team next year and if they do and that player turns had to be better then you just cut Cam and you walk away and you know there I I had some people say me oh they will never cut him this is a team who forced Troy palalo to retire the heck they won't if if it's time they'll tell you it's time they're not going to be afraid to tell anybody including cam Hayward it's time um he's certainly not the player that poalo was and and and and there was nothing wrong with that decision then there would be nothing wrong with that decision if they made it cam hayward's still a very good part of this defense um I I just I I don't I don't understand any of this it's like the world has lost its mind so uh hopefully you all understand where I'm coming from with this if you have any questions leave them I'll try to hit them later when I'm back on with Zachary Smith in the afternoon Drive we're also going to talk about uh maybe I don't know the game coming up uh but there's also probably going to be some some more contract news so maybe we'll have some more news break during that make sure you like subscribe hit that Bell for notification so you don't miss an episode of the morning Rush the afternoon Drive I'll be back with you after practice alone with Smitty thanks for listening thanks for watching and we'll see you next time