Following the Pittsburgh Steelers' Week 1 victory over the Atlanta Falcons, national media outlets quickly seized upon a familiar offseason storyline: Pittsburgh enters the 2026 season holding the title of the NFL’s oldest 53-man roster.
However, All-Pro defensive captain Cam Heyward thinks that statistical label is far more about misleading averages than actual roster construction.
Speaking on his podcast “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward,” the veteran defensive lineman directly addressed the age narrative, breaking down how a pair of high-profile roster spots artificially inflate the team’s demographic metrics.
Heyward was asked by his co-host Hayden Walsh about the Steelers being the oldest team in the league. Walsh noted that it appeared
to him that if you remove 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers and 37-year-old Heyward himself, it isn’t all that old. Heyward agreed.
“So yeah, we're like one of the youngest teams then. It's like, okay, we see where this is directed. Let it go,” Heyward said.
When looking closely at Pittsburgh's roster depth, Heyward’s logic holds up. The vast majority of the starting lineup and rotational core, including young stars like Joey Porter Jr., Darnell Washington, and Keeanu Benton, is firmly in its early-to-mid twenties.
Having legendary, long-tenured veterans at quarterback and defensive tackle mathematically pulls the average age upward, masking what is otherwise a young, ascending roster.
For Heyward, the hyper-fixation on average age feels less like an objective football analysis and more like a lazy talking point aimed at doubting Pittsburgh’s competitive window.
“It felt like a shot,” Heyward admitted. “But that's why you got to keep playing well so people can't make that point because if I'm playing well, that's all that matters.”
As long as veteran cornerstone pieces continue to produce at an elite level, the Steelers will happily let the media obsess over averages while they focus on stack-building wins.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Cam Heyward destroys the myth about the Steelers' roster age
