Player: RB Jaylen Warren
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: After being limited by injuries earlier in the season, RB Jaylen Warren is running like his old self. While he isn’t hitting on breakaway runs, he is showing his physicality and toughness. He isn’t getting a ton of burn right now, but he could pay dividends down the stretch and into the postseason.
Jaylen Warren was banged up before the season opener, and it wasn’t too long after that he was banged up again. Over the first three games, he recorded 14 carries for 54 yards. For most of the past two months, though, he has looked like the Jaylen Warren of 2023.
Over the past seven games, Warren has 67 rushes for 298 yards and 4.5 yards per attempt. He also has 19 catches for 183 yards. Over a full season, those numbers would put him on pace to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark again.
Of course, his game-to-game frequency of opportunity varies as do his results. Last week against the Browns Warren rushed for 47 yards on just nine attempts. The week prior, he rushed for nine yards on three attempts, though he had 55 receiving yards on four catches. That was actually his biggest receiving game of the season, something of an outlier.
But barring that game in Cincinnati, Jaylen Warren has over 40 rushing yards in six of the past seven games. And he has registered over four yards per carry in five of those seven games. That’s good news for a Steelers team that is going to want—and need—to grind out some December games. And that’s even better news come football in January and, let’s hope, February.
The Steelers have struggled to put together a consistent run game all season. But if they have Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren firing on all cylinders down the stretch, teams won’t want to play against them. That falls as much on the offensive line as it does the backs, of course. And they do have two rookies playing, so the rookie wall could be a factor.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
