There's no shortage of compelling storylines and motivating factors for the Steelers this week.
Ryan Shazier? Dan Rooney? Absolutely. Cam Heyward has another one: Tyson Alualu.
"I want to get this one for him," Heyward was telling me Thursday.
Alualu played seven seasons and 110 games, starting 88 of them, for the Jaguars. Never once did he play in a postseason game, didn't even come remotely close.
Until now.
Thing is, when Alualu makes his long-awaited postseason debut on Sunday it will be against the Jaguars, the team who drafted him 10th overall in 2010.
Not that Alualu is about to complain about that. The big man, all 6-foot-3 and 295 pounds of him, is in a better place now. After going 28-78 in Jacksonville, Alualu went 13-3 in his first year with the Steelers, a team that is favored handily to win their divisional round playoff game against the Jaguars at Heinz Field.
In March, the Steelers signed Alualu to a two-year, $6 million deal in free agency. Alualu had been a consistent but hardly dominant player for the Jaguars, who selected him in the 2010 draft ahead of Pro Bowl regulars such as Rob Gronkowski, Jason Pierre-Paul, Earl Thomas and Maurkice Pouncey.
"I know he was a little bummed," Heyward was telling me. "You always want to beat the team you were with. I told him, 'what better revenge than beating them in the playoffs?'"
Alualu insists that a date in the AFC Championship -- not revenge against his former employers -- is what's driving him this week.
"Nah, just another game that we've got to win," he said. "You lose and you go home. Definitely don't want it to be us."
In Pittsburgh, Alualu has found a home in part of a rotation and, no, he hasn't just been along for the ride.
Alualu contributed four sacks, tied for fifth on the team, 39 tackles (25 solo) while playing 434 defensive snaps (44.24 percent) and starting five games, four of them when Stephon Tuitt was out with assorted injuries.
"He might not say too much sometimes, but we've started to crack that shell," Heyward said. "Tyson is a good leader, a good veteran, a good professional, the way he takes care of his body. He's seen things. He's been through battles. It's not like he's getting accustomed to playing the game of football, he's just getting accustomed to playing with us."
The question on the minds of many is whether Tuitt will play Sunday. The starting defensive end did not practice on Thursday, a day after suffering an elbow injury on the indoor practice field at the Rooney Complex. Meanwhile, Javon Hargrave also unexpectedly did not practice with a back injury.
Tuitt was adamant that he will play Sunday but it does leave the door open for Alualu not only to play, but to see significant snaps. Still, that doesn't change anything for Alualu.
"We're always preparing to go out there and take the field," he said.
And if Alualu does play, Heyward said that the Steelers will not skip a beat.
"He's been very unselfish," Heyward said of his teammate. "He could have went to a lot of different places and played a multitude of snaps. He's been a rotational guy, but I have full confidence when he's in there. It's not like there's a dropoff. Tyson has earned everybody's respect in this locker room and is a guy we can count on."
Steelers practice, UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Jan. 11, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS