While there has been so much talk and debate about the running back position and the supposed battle for playing time between Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the other running back on the roster tends to be the forgotten man. A year after missing the cut, Anthony McFarland Jr. is back on the 53—where he belongs, according to his quarterback, who made sure not to forget him during a discussion about the position while on as a guest on the Steel Here podcast.
“You’re gonna need all three. You’re gonna need 26 as well”, he told hosts Jersey Jerry and Kevin Adams, referring to McFarland by his jersey number. And it’s not the first time that he has volunteered praise for the 24-year-old running back. “I’m really excited to have 26 on our team this year and do some different things with him”, he said after the team’s final preseason game during an on-field post-game interview with Cameron Wolfe.
It really shouldn’t be a surprise because their relationship goes back to last year. Recall that Pickett as a rookie, in spite of his pedigree, was working with the second- and third-team offense all the time. That meant working with Benny Snell Jr. and McFarland for much of that time. So when Harris and Warren were nicked up and they needed the other backs, he knew what they could do.
“When those guys were back in the backfield with me, I was really comfortable, because I had so many reps in camp and spring and the preseason games with those guys. I’m ultra-confident in those guys”, he said back in late November after their successful performance against the Indianapolis Colts. McFarland rushed for 30 yards on six carries in that game with a 12-yard reception.
While Harris and Warren combined for nearly 425 touches between them, the way Pickett talks, he wants to see a more diverse backfield. Prior to Warren’s injury in the second half of last season, no other back besides himself and Harris had even played a snap on offense.
“First off, it’s a long season. Second of all, they all three of them do different things really well”, Pickett told Jerry and Adams on Steel Here in making the argument for including McFarland in the mix. “It’s up to us to get them the ball in what they do really well and put them in those positions to succeed. We can be creative and all different types of things with them, which will be fun”.
McFarland had been particularly praised this offseason for the growth he showed in the receiving game. Harris in particular sang his praises and envisioned an expanded role for him. He even likened his skill set to Darren Sproles and described him as an emerging threat out of the backfield, adding that what he can do could take things off of his own plate, as Warren’s emergence did a year ago.
Now in his fourth season since being drafted out of Maryland in the fourth round in 2020, McFarland has the chance finally to prove himself. He did little in his first two seasons, the second marred by a training camp injury, before being nudged out of the way by Warren a year ago. With Snell gone, and coming off the best offseason of his career, it’s now or never. Pickett’s got his back.
