Our friends over at Touchdown Wire broke down and ranked the 11 best interior defensive linemen in the NFL. It’s a labor-intensive process and the whole list is worth reading right here. We especially like it because TD Wire has Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward on the list.
Heyward checks in at No. 9 and before you all get bent out of shape about that, just understand this isn’t about Heyward being a bad player. There are a lot of starting interior defensive linemen in the NFL and they have Heyward better than all but eight of them.
Here’s what they had to say about Heyward:
Another year, another amazing season for Heyward, who is quietly building himself a Hall of Fame resume. With six Pro Bowl nominations and three All-Pro nods, Heyward has reached a precipitous altitude, and he shows no signs of slowing down at age 34. In 2022, with an injured T.J. Watt and not a ton of juice around him in the interior defensive line (Larry Ogunjobi excepted), Heyward did what he does — he totaled 12 sacks (his most in a season since 2017), 10 quarterback hits, 36 quarterback hurries, and 43 stops.
Heyward has figured out a way to beat Father Time and play at a remarkable level as the oldest player on this list.
