End no more: Cam Heyward officially listed as defensive tackle

[hawaiiansteeler]

End no more: Cam Heyward officially listed as defensive tackle

By: Curt Popejoy

If you have watched the Pittsburgh Steelers play, you know that Cam Heyward makes the vast majority of his plays inside as a defensive tackle. Despite running a base 3-4 defense, the sheer volume of sub packages the Steelers run necessitated the change. And now the team has acknowledged it by officially listing Heyward as a defensive tackle on the official roster.

What will this mean for the season? Probably nothing. Unless the team is going to make a more complete transition to a 4-3 base defense. If that is the case, it would mean significant changes for players like Bud Dupree and Javon Hargrave.

to read rest of article:

https://steelerswire.usatoday.com/2018/07/26/end-no-more-cam-heyward-officially-listed-as-defensive-tackle/

[steelreserve]

What's the meaning? I'll take a guess - it's that his contract expires in 2020, so they'll probably want to extend him this coming offseason or at worst the 2019 offseason, and the good defensive tackles make $10 or $12 million, while the good DEs make $15 or $17 million.

I don't know, maybe it's an acknowledgement that they're using more nickel defenses and shit with funky alignments, but it still works to their advantage.

One could argue (completely separately) that a 3-4 defensive end is radically different from a 4-3 defensive end ... basically the 3-4 defensive end IS a tackle, and the 4-3 DE is closer to what we'd call one of the larger outside linebackers.

[hawaiiansteeler]

What's the meaning?

maybe it's that your official designation has to do with where you actually line up most often?

[DesertSteel]

Maybe it's just so that he can be voted to the Pro Bowl...

[teegre]

Maybe it's just so that he can be voted to the Pro Bowl...

:nod: Nailed it.