Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward, for a change, took on a new duty: serving hot takes. On the Rich Eisen Show, he was given a platform to bring forward rules that he would like to change, and Heyward did not hesitate to point out his concerns.

“I think my first rule I would change is no trade-backs,” Heyward shared during the interview. “I’ve been seeing this a lot. I just saw the thing with Cincinnati and the Eagles. They canceled the trade and there was a trade during the offseason between Baltimore and the Raiders that needs to be squashed as well. I think if you’re going to make the trade, you make the trade. There’s no way to get out of it.”

His argument is straightforward: once two teams agree to a trade, they should be held to that decision. Neither side should have the option of backing out afterward.

“You’re going to get in business, and you’re going to get in the bed with them,” he added.

Heyward’s second proposal concerns NFL overtime rules.

“So, this is my other one. Because of the Browns game, right? And they go into overtime. I respect [Todd] Monken going for two. But I want the rule to be there are no ties ever in overtime. Either you go for the two-point play, or you keep playing,” he raised his point. “… And so I think if you have the two-point play, you’re going to have more instances like the Cleveland Browns play, okay, where they actually have to go for it. So it presents one opportunity. You get it, you move on. But let’s get rid of these ties. I like seeing guys be aggressive and go for the win.”

Philadelphia and Cincinnati were initially on board to send Arnold Ebiketie from the Eagles to the Bengals. But things took a U-turn just an hour after the trade was announced, as it was canceled. What called for more attention is the fact that Cincinnati did not back off due to physical or performance concerns.

According to Over The Cap’s Nick Korte, the Bengals would lose a projected third-round compensatory pick associated with the Trey Hendrickson trade. As noted by FOX, teams get these compensatory picks when they lose more qualifying free agents than they sign. Ebiketie’s trade would have the Bengals lose four qualifying free agents and four gained.

Whether or not Korte highlighting this played into the Bengals backing out is not known. But the trade was called off within hours of its announcement.

Apart from the much-reported trade failure between the Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas for Maxx Crosby, there was a canceled trade between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers for linebacker Daiyan Henley. The deal was to be finalized pending a physical, which is where the problem arose. Reportedly, the Broncos found arthritis in Henley’s knee. The Broncos then approached the Chargers with another offer.

Secondly, Heyward wants teams to have an opportunity to decide games through two-point conversions. Maybe Heyward is still not over the Cleveland Browns vs. the New Orleans Saints game on Sunday when Todd Monken’s boys lost 23-22 in an overtime thriller.

The Browns had a chance to win. Cleveland had a chance to force a tie after Shedeur Sanders led the team to an overtime touchdown. But rather than settling for an extra conversion to even the score, Monken decided to put the game on the line and go for two. Unfortunately, things did not go in Cleveland’s favor.

He later explained that allowing the Saints another opportunity with two timeouts remaining was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. It did put Monken on the hot seat.

“Well, listen, I’m gonna say this: a tie is better than a loss. You can’t go into these games, into these situations,” ex-Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry called him out on 4th and South. “Listen to the time market press conference after the game. He said it was either tie or lose, or tie or win or some s—. Is this that confusing, as confusing as the decision that he made to go for two?”

Also, as Heyward said, moments like this make the game more worthwhile. The only tie so far this season was the Week 5 New York Giants vs. the Washington Commanders clash. In this case, the Commanders had the opportunity to win the game after causing a fumble and with enough time on their hands to reach Giants territory, stop the clock, and attempt a field goal. Instead, bad time management caused the Commanders to settle for a tie.