Study: How Involved Will Steelers’ Running Backs Be In Passing Game?

We already heard from RB Jaylen Warren in the locker room following one of the offseason training activities, and he made it clear that the running backs’ level of involvement in the passing game this year should be trending upward from seasons prior.

“We’re involved a lot in the pass game, learning the new offense. It’s a whole bunch we’re involved in, so I’m excited for that…everybody’s involved, or just more involved.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a ton of new variables to grapple with on the offensive side of the football. A handful of new assistant coaches, new offensive linemen, new quarterbacks, and a new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith. We think we have a pretty good idea of what Smith’s offense might look like based on his history as a coordinator and head coach, but he will also need to tailor the plan to the Steelers’ personnel, and that could introduce some unexpected wrinkles in his plan.

It sure seems like the running backs will be getting a lot of carries with a heavy dose of 12 and 13 personnel and a run-first offensive identity. But by the sound of what Warren said, they could also be getting more involved as receivers.

Given this information, I wanted to examine the various factors at play to determine just how many receptions we can expect out of the backfield. I looked at Russell Wilson’s two-year stint with the Denver Broncos, Arthur Smith’s two-year stint as the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, Smith’s final two years as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, and, of course, the Steelers’ last two years of production in this area.

The first thing that stuck out to me was how often Russell Wilson got his running backs involved in the passing game during his two-year stint in Denver. Both years were pretty similar in that regard, so it can’t be pinned on Sean Payton or Nathaniel Hackett. Wilson clearly has a tendency to check down passes. He extends plays with his legs a lot and goes out of structure. That is a good time for running backs to play some backyard football and work their way into the quarterback’s field of vision for some extra receptions.

Le’Veon Bell had a ton of success catching checkdown passes and being Ben Roethlisberger’s favorite checkdown target. He had over 80 receptions in two separate seasons throughout his career in Pittsburgh.

Here are those same figures above, broken down into a per-game basis.

Based on the numbers, Arthur Smith actually uses his running backs as receivers less than what the Steelers had over the last two seasons with Matt Canada calling the plays. That isn’t to say it won’t happen in Pittsburgh. Warren very clearly seems to think it will, but it is something interesting to keep in mind.

As for the Steelers’ running backs, Najee Harris is capable as a receiver, but his usage in that area has decreased in each of his three seasons. He had 74 receptions in his rookie season with Ben Roethlisberger but less than that in the last two seasons combined (70). Some of that decrease has to do with Jaylen Warren’s emergence as a change-of-pace back.

He went from 28 receptions on 33 targets in 2022 to 61 receptions on 74 targets in 2023. I wouldn’t count on Cordarrelle Patterson being a significant part of this equation. He had 21 receptions on 31 targets in 2022, but with Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier ahead of him on the RB depth chart last season, his usage dropped to just nine receptions on 12 targets in 2023.

Wilson sure seems to like throwing to his running backs, and Warren says that Smith’s offense seems to be utilizing them more as receivers. For those two reasons, I would expect a noticeable bump in targets and receptions for the Steelers’ running backs in 2024. If I had to guess, maybe something like eight targets and 45 yards per game on average for the backfield.