It was a good night for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ running backs, at least toward the top half of the depth chart. While Anthony McFarland Jr. led the way with 55 yards on 10 rushes, the top trio each found the end zone in succession—first Najee Harris, then Jaylen Warren, and finally the team’s rushing leader in the Steelers’ blowout win over the Atlanta Falcons.
That’s what they want to see more of, all of the backs supporting and building off one another. Harris told Missi Matthews during last night’s game broadcast on KDKA-TV that they were all betting with one another “to see if all of us could get a touchdown”. Well, they did. And there’s more to come if they have their way.
“Just having a versatility of all kinds of running backs is really good”, he said. “I think it will be a lot better if they see more than just one back in there because it can expand the offense more. When I’m in there they may play a certain type of defense and I think their versatility could be one of the best in the nation”.
The third-year back logged 83 percent of the Steelers’ offensive snaps as a rookie in 2021, and it probably would have been closer to 90 percent were it not for in-game injuries, 980 in all. That number dropped all the way down to 763 last year primarily due to Warren’s emergence.
Warren himself logged 342 offensive snaps for the team a year ago as a college free agent rookie. He managed to pry 77 rushing attempts away from Harris for 379 yards with one touchdown. Guess how many rushing yards all the running backs on the team not named Najee combined for in 2021.
Give up? It’s 137.
The 137 yards by all running backs behind their starter is a total that Warren nearly tripled on his own in 2022. And they still got another 120 yards on top of that out of McFarland and Benny Snell Jr., though those two might not have gotten any work all year were it not for injuries.
But could they be a three-headed monster this year, with each of the top three backs contributing their own niches? It would be a far cry from head coach Mike Tomlin’s preference for a bell-cow runner. That’s what they drafted Harris to be, but if you don’t need him to be that, why do it?
They all bring something a little different to the table, and as Harris said, that could force defenses to play each of them differently. There is strength in numbers here. It’s been a long time since the Steelers used a full platoon of running backs by design rather than by necessity. The players in this room seem eager to prove that they are equipped to do that. It might take some ego-swallowing, but it will be what’s best for the team if it works out.
