Connor
Heyward.
Connor
Heyward.
Michigan St.· 5'11"· 233 lb· 4.72s 40
"A running back who ran out of room at running back and rebuilt himself as a hybrid, Connor Heyward turned the last pick of Pittsburgh's sixth round into four full seasons of availability and a free-agent contract that treats versatility as a skill."Pre-draft read
A converted running back playing a hybrid H-back role, and every rep looks like it. Heyward aligns in the backfield, in the slot, wing off the tackle and occasionally on the line, and nothing in his stance tells you which is coming. He catches the ball cleanly away from his body, turns upfield instantly and runs through the first arm tackle the way a back does, not the way a tight end does.
As a blocker he is willing and physical in space, hunting linebackers and safeties on lead and split-zone. What he is not is an in-line tight end. At 5-11 and 233 pounds with 31 7/8-inch arms, he cannot be left alone against a defensive end, and defenses that force him to block down or hold an edge erase the package.
A play-action offense with a real fullback-H-back package that motions him across the formation and uses him as a lead blocker, flat target and short-yardage runner.
Year 1: special teams core plus 12-15 offensive snaps in the fullback package. Ceiling: a scheme-defining hybrid who touches the ball in three different ways each week.
A pure 11-personnel spread offense with no fullback on the roster, where he is only the fourth tight end and cannot block an edge.
The more packages an offense runs, the more he is worth.
Highlights: Michigan State Tight End Connor Heyward
His 2021 tight end tape, the season that turned him into a draftable player.
How Connor Heyward Has Excelled After a Position Switch
The Journey's look at the running-back-to-H-back conversion that defined his career.
Connor Heyward: Best of 2025
The full hybrid package in Pittsburgh: fullback lead blocks, flat routes and wildcat snaps.
Heyward's college career was a five-year identity search that finally resolved in his last season. He arrived at Michigan State as a running back, scored his first touchdown against Rutgers as a freshman in 2017, and had his one true tailback year in 2018 with 118 carries for 529 yards and five scores plus 32 catches. Then he lost the starting job to Elijah Collins after the 2019 opener, left the team and entered the transfer portal, came back, and redshirted the season.
The redemption was 2021, when he moved to tight end and H-back and became the best version of himself: 13 starts, 35 catches for 326 yards, two touchdowns, a 9.3-yard average that was easily his career best. Across five years in East Lansing he totaled 96 receptions for 711 yards and six scores plus 211 carries for 825 yards and five more.
The pre-draft profile was awkward on purpose. He measured 5-11 1/8 and 233 pounds at the Combine with a 4.72 forty and just 18 bench reps, which is a fullback's body running a fullback's forty in a league that had stopped drafting fullbacks. What he had was one full season of real production out of a hybrid alignment, special teams value, and a football family name — Craig Heyward's son, Cameron Heyward's brother — that suggested he would know what to do with a roster spot.
- 01
Positional versatility with teeth
a full 2021 season taking snaps as an H-back, wing, slot and backfield player without the alignment tipping the call.
- 02
Running-back instincts after the catch
the 9.3 yards per reception in 2021 came from turning short throws upfield, not from being schemed open deep.
- 03
Willing blocker in space
attacks linebackers and safeties on lead, split-zone and screens with real contact temperament.
- 04
Special-teams readiness
the kind of sixth-round hybrid who earns a roster spot on coverage units before he earns offensive snaps.
- 05
Proven recovery from adversity
lost his job, entered the portal, returned, redshirted and rebuilt himself into a starter at a new position.
- 01
No true position
too small at 5-11 and 233 pounds to play in-line tight end, too limited as a ball carrier to be a lead back in the NFL.
- 02
Short arms and no length
31 7/8-inch arms mean edge defenders reach his frame first on any down block or edge-setting assignment.
- 03
Marginal testing profile
a 4.72 forty and 18 bench reps give him no athletic separator to fall back on when the scheme fit is imperfect.
- 04
Thin production base
only one season of real receiving volume, and his best rushing year was three seasons before the draft.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.72sp50
- Vertical
- 32.5inp50
- Broad jump
- —in
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Michigan State | 12 | 4 | 13 | 1 |
| 2018 | Michigan State | 13 | 32 | 249 | 0 |
| 2019 | Michigan State | 4 | 7 | 52 | 1 |
| 2020 | Michigan State | 7 | 18 | 71 | 2 |
| 2021 | Michigan State | 13 | 35 | 326 | 2 |
| Career | — | 49 | 96 | 711 | 6 |
Receiving lines verified against the full Michigan State career table; the five listed seasons sum exactly to the career row of 49 games, 28 starts, 96 receptions, 711 yards and six touchdowns. He played running back through 2020 and also carried 211 times for 825 yards and five touchdowns in college — 118 for 529 and five scores in 2018 alone — but those rushing splits are not carried in the receiving family keys and are cited in the narrative instead. He entered the transfer portal after losing the 2019 starting job, then returned to the team; 2019 shows only four games for that reason.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Fullback-tight end who plays every game every year and earns real money without volume production.
Hybrid fullback whose alignment versatility became a scheme's identity rather than a roster afterthought.
Reliable special-teams fullback with a handful of offensive touches a season and no path to more.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Pittsburgh took him 208th overall and gave the franchise its fourth set of brothers, then found out he was useful immediately. He played all 17 games as a rookie and scored his first professional touchdown in Week 13 at Atlanta, a 17-yard catch with both feet dragged in at the back of the end zone, in the city where his father Craig played. That rookie year ended with 12 catches for 151 yards and 27 rushing yards on two carries.
What followed was four consecutive seasons of all 17 games played, which is the real story of a sixth-round hybrid: complete availability. He started seven games in 2023 and posted a career-high 23 catches for 167 yards, then settled into a fullback-and-special-teams job in 2024. By 2025 he was listed as a hybrid fullback and tight end, scored on a 12-yard reception in the Week 6 win over Cleveland, ran 15 times for 43 yards and two touchdowns, and took direct snaps as a wildcat quarterback on designed runs, including tush-push plays behind his own brother. Through four seasons he had 68 games, 14 starts, 44 catches for 379 yards, 70 rushing yards and five total touchdowns, plus three playoff appearances. Las Vegas signed him to a two-year, $5.5 million deal with $2 million guaranteed on March 13, 2026 — free-agent money that no longer treats him as a spare part.