Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: RB Anthony McFarland Jr.
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Activated from the Reserve/Injured List earlier this week, the veteran running back is set to make his return for his first game back since the season opener. He should safely return to his previous job as kick returner and is also arriving at what appears to be an opportune time within the offense.
It’s unclear why it took virtually until the very end of his 21-day practice window to be activated from the Reserve/Injured List, but RB Anthony McFarland Jr. is finally back on the team’s 53-man roster. And we can probably assume that he will return to his previous duties.
He is listed as the starting kick returner, a job that he has held for precisely one game in his career. He won that role heading into the 2023 season, and did a fine job in the season opener, but he had been sidelined due to injury since then.
McFarland recorded three kick returns in the opener against the San Francisco 49ers, averaging 30.1 yards per return. That’s a very small sample size, but it’s at least proof of concept. And he wasn’t just limited to special teams in the opener.
He also logged five offensive snaps in that game, a game in which there wasn’t much for the offense to do, let alone the running backs in particular, as the 49ers dominated them from kickoff to close. He still managed to catch two passes on those five snaps for 11 yards, which included a nice grab on an errant pass that successfully converted on fourth down.
Meanwhile, the running game seems finally to have found its footing, and the offense is beginning to improve its ability to sustain drives. These are the circumstances under which more players have the opportunity to get involved.
If the Steelers can really get the ground game humming, then they will value McFarland’s skill set as a genuine change of pace. Jaylen Warren has some quickness to him, but McFarland offers the greatest big-play threat if he can find open space.
And he was being used in the passing game, which is another potential role for him. He had a strong training camp as a receiving threat, and he was able to carry that over in very limited work in the regular season. I don’t know if they try to expand on that, but the opportunity is there now that he is back in the mix.
