Cam Heyward ‘Honored’ to Tie ‘Legend’ Joey Porter on Steelers Sacks Leaderboard

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward earned his 60th NFL sack on Sunday night against the Seattle Seahawks, which is good enough to tie him for fifth place all-time in Steelers history.

The man Heyward tied, former Steelers outside linebacker Joey Porter, was also a coach of the team for several years during Heyward’s career.

“I’m just honored to be tied with a guy like Joey Porter, Heyward said. “That’s a guy that I respect that’s a legend in my book.”

Porter played the team’s premier pass-rushing position, while Heyward frequently deals with two or three players in his way as an interior defensive lineman. He acknowledged the team nature of some of his sacks, as opposed to the one-on-one battles edge rushers frequently get.

“It’s not just me getting those sacks,” Heyward said. “There’s a lot of people that have helped me get those, a lot of teammates, whether it’s blitzers, running stunts or winning my 1-on-1 ones but having the DBs behind me that have been great.”

The Steelers’ career sack leader is James Harrison with 80.5. He’s followed unofficially by L.C. Greenwood with 78 and Joe Greene with 77.5. Sacks were not official NFL statistics until 1982, but research by Pro Football Reference has included all sacks back to 1960. Jason Gildon is fourth with 77 and then Heyward and Porter have 60.