Pittsburgh Steelers RB Jaylen Warren took over as the team’s third-down back during Week Five of last season and he hasn’t looked back. Despite being small in stature at 5-8, Warren packs a punch at 215 pounds and he’s made a name for himself with his pass blocking ability. RB Anthony McFarland Jr., who is hoping to return from the knee injury that’s knocked him out the last four games, praised Warren’s pass-blocking ability.
“He is the best pass blocker in the world. I’m serious,” McFarland said via Steelers.com.
Dating back to his first NFL game, Warren’s blocking has stood out. It’s one of the reasons why he’s such a valuable part of the roster. He’s not afraid to stick his face in the fire and go toe-to-toe with oncoming pass rushers. His pass protection is one of the key reasons why Kenny Pickett’s 72-yard touchdown pass to WR Calvin Austin III in Week Three went off without a hitch, as he did an awesome job picking up the blocker and letting Pickett make a play without any serious pressure.
It’s just one of many traits that helped Warren make the Steelers’ roster as an undrafted free agent last year and become a legitimate contributor. He’s also second on the team in receptions this year, and he provided a major spark for the Steelers’ offense in Week Five against the Baltimore Ravens, picking up chunk plays and helping set up a scoring drive that ended with a Chris Boswell field goal.
He’s a really nice complement to RB Najee Harris, and the return of McFarland will give the Steelers a speedster in the backfield that they can deploy as well. The run game hasn’t been nearly consistent enough at this point in the season, and while I don’t think McFarland’s return is going to make a huge impact, coming out of the bye could help the Steelers figure things out. After the bye week last season, the run game looked much better than it had prior, and there’s hope the same thing can occur this season.
It’s not as if Pittsburgh’s passing offense is setting the world on fire, so there’s a need for the run game to step up to aid Pickett and the passing game and let the Steelers do more and open the playbook a bit. Warren is a big piece to that as a receiver, a runner and a pass blocker, and if he can continue to work the way he has in those facets of the game, he might be due for a little bit of a bigger role going forward.
