Welcome to the terrible take a mini podcast telling Steelers nation what's on our mind.

I'm Josh Carney. It's no secret that Pittsburgh Steelers star defensive linemen

and team Captain Cameron Hayward is getting up there in age.

With 12 seasons already under his belt and entering his age 34 season this fall, Hayward

remains one of the very best defensive linemen in the NFL.

He's coming off of his second straight 10-plus sacks season and closed the 2022 season in impressive fashion,

with 5.5 sacks in the final month of the year

as the Steelers went 3 and 1 in December and January to finish 9 and 8 overall.

Yet despite that strong close to his 12th year in the NFL, Hayward has been a bit

disrespected this off season. He was recently peeved that he was called a quote three dollar linemen end quote by pro football focus and then later

landed at number nine in ESPN's defensive line rankings, with one NFL executive stating anonymously that his team

saw a decline in Hayward this past season. All that does is add more fuel to the fire for Hayward, who is driven by the

disrespect and the doubt. All great athletes are. But Hayward is that guy for the Steelers.

Even with him entering the 2023 season at 34 years old,

he continues to play at an impressively high level overall.

He still has that great power to his game, which makes

him a handful for interior offensive linemen, and he's the heart and soul of the Steelers overall.

Doubting him at this point is dangerous and has the opportunity for people to have egg on their face when it comes to Hayward.

Again, stating that the decline is coming or that they saw a decline is very similar to that

guy who will be nameless from ESPN years ago, who kept saying summer after summer that Tom Brady was going to fall off.

He kept saying it so that eventually he was right. But really, Brady never fell off. I'm not saying that Hayward is

going to play until 45 like Brady did. But age is just a number for the

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