Not a ton of football players who attend junior colleges (aka JUCOs) make it to the NFL. it requires a lot of perseverance to even find yourself in the position to get a tryout invitation by the time you’re done with school.
Fortunately for Pittsburgh Steelers rookie running back Alfonzo Graham, he has the model to follow in Jaylen Warren, a 2022 college free agent who got started at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, before moving on to Utah State and finally playing one season at Oklahoma State in 2021. Graham takes inspiration from the second-year back as he tries to replicate the formula in Pittsburgh this year.
“I just shout out Jaylen a lot”, he told Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He impacts me. He doesn’t even know. Just the fact that he went through the same road, and for him to come in last year and make a name for himself and keep it going, it just gives me more motivation to come in and do the same thing”.
Warren was signed as a first-wave college free agent last year, but was still just a name to most fans, if they were aware of it at all. The Steelers still had three running backs under contract who were on the 53-man roster the year before, so there was no obvious opening.
He ended up making his own, putting himself on the map on the first day of padded practices, stepping up in the backs on backers drill and showing that he could hold his own. Things only continued to blossom from there, Warren showing even himself that he was capable of doing things he wasn’t sure of before he had to do them.
Warren was so successful in his role that the Steelers ended up actively trying to find ways to get him more playing time, after Najee Harris had led the NFL in touches just a year earlier as a rookie. The team is now excited about its one-two punch, the one being a pedigreed national champion from Alabama and the other a bowling ball who rolled down the hill from Snow College and never stopped.
With the Steelers not re-signing Benny Snell Jr., there is an opening at the end of the depth chart, and Graham has already gained some attention this offseason. Still, he will have competition, chiefly from Anthony McFarland Jr., who was on the 53 in his first two seasons but fell to the practice squad thanks to Warren last year.
As a rookie in 2022, Warren picked up nearly 600 yards from scrimmage. He rushed for 379 yards on just 77 attempts with one touchdown, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. He also showed a level of comfort as a receiver, catching 28 passes for another 214 yards.
The Steelers also began using him over Harris as their third-down back due to the proclivity he showed in handling the role of pass protection, not just physically but mentally, understanding how to identify blitzers quickly and who to pick up and who to pass on. Graham will have to take the same approach in Latrobe this year, but he has Warren to help show him what he needs to do to make the team.
