Running games, man. They’re like the bread and butter of Arthur Smith’s whole football vibe, right? So, early 2024 wasn’t a complete disaster—there were flashes—but then, just like that, the Steelers’ offense hit this weird brick wall. Wham! You gotta wonder about 2025. Maybe with a fresh batch of running backs and a beefier offensive line, things might not be so bleak. But hey, Pro Football Focus? They’re not exactly throwing a party over it.
Dalton Wasserman, our trusty source of skepticism, says the Steelers’ RBs are ranked, like, 26th in the league now? Oof. That’s seventh-worst. Seriously.
“Pittsburgh kept Jaylen Warren around even after last year’s not-so-stellar 64.3 PFF grade,” he writes. And yeah, he can be decent, but he’s never been ‘the guy’ in the NFL.
Oh, and they’ve snagged Kenneth Gainwell from the Eagles. But his last couple of years were meh with a 54.3 PFF grade. Not exactly the stuff of legends.
Then, you’ve got Kaleb Johnson, this fresh face, rookie breath of fresh air, with a shiny 86.7 PFF rushing grade. He’s apparently the perfect puzzle piece for Smith’s zone-run strategy. Fingers crossed?
Sure, PFF is throwing shade, but there’s hope, right? Rodgers is in town, and the line’s improving, so maybe these backs will just shine like polished apples by standing next to them.
Warren wasn’t exactly on fire last season, but let’s be real, injuries were hounding him like gnats in summer. When he finally got past all that, he seemed more himself again—explosive, even—until the Steelers fell off a cliff in those last five games. Yikes.
Back in ’23, when Warren wasn’t being held together by duct tape and hopes, he had a decent 78.5 on PFF. Apparently, dude’s hard to tackle—106 forced misses over three years, 56 from the good ol’ healthy season. It’s like he’s greased or something.
Maybe Warren will kick off the season in the lead, but Kaleb Johnson is lurking, ready to pounce as the 1a to Warren’s 1b. Arthur Smith was all smiles about him at the draft. Beat reporters are already calling him the next big thing.
Smith even had to switch up his strategy last year ’cause, well, the team wasn’t clicking with his usual deal. But Johnson? He might bring them back to those tried-and-true outside zone runs—Smith’s happy place.
Then there’s Gainwell. Different beast, more of a pass catcher, you know? Eddie Faulkner, the RB coach, is plotting all these wild ways to use him. Maybe two backs on the field? Who knows. Last season, he showed the Steelers firsthand just how spicy he can get.
Honestly, it’d be a shocker if the Steelers’ running backs end up scraping the bottom of the barrel by season’s end, like PFF predicts. But who knows? Football’s a funny game like that.
