With Najee Harris off to Los Angeles to play with the Chargers and Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell on one-year deals for the Pittsburgh Steelers, things could be trending toward the franchise selecting a running back in the first round.
At least, that’s what longtime Steelers reporter and Pat McAfee Show Steelers correspondent Mark Kaboly said during an appearance on 93.7 The Fan’s Joe Show with Joe Starkey and Bob Pompeani Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m really starting to feel that they might be inching towards the first-round running back,” Kaboly said, according to video via 93.7 The Fan on YouTube. “I would never thought that would’ve been the case. But with Jaylen Warren on a one-year deal, I don’t know what [Kenneth] Gainwell got. Did he get a year or two? I think he did get a year or two. It almost screams out to me that there might be interested in a running back.
“I mean, it all depends on how the rest of free agency and how the draft breaks. But man, I think that has to be in the conversation right now.”
After drafting a first-round running back in Najee Harris in 2021 and then seeing him leave in free agency after his fifth-year option was declined, it would be rather shocking for GM Omar Khan and assistant GM Andy Weidl select a running back in the first round again.
That said, they’ve shown some interest in running backs throughout the pre-draft process. They held a formal meeting with Heisman Trophy finalist Ashton Jeanty at the NFL Scouting Combine while also being connected to potential first-round running back Omarion Hampton out of North Carolina.
The Steelers placed a second-round tender worth $5.346 million for the 2025 season on Warren, though it’s unclear the financial imprint of Gainwell’s contract just yet. That’s not a lot of money tied up in the position this year, or moving forward. Cordarrelle Patterson is going into the final year of his contract, and he remains a cut candidate.
It’s a running back class that has received quite a bit of praise leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft. Deep and talented, the class includes backs like Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, Kansas’ Devin Neal and Oklahoma State’s Ollie Gordon III. All have had some buzz around them regarding the Steelers.
A first-round running back would be absolutely shocking though. It would be horrible asset management, the Steelers repeating the same mistake that Kevin Colbert and Co. made in 2021 going running back in Harris before the rest of the offense was ready for a plug-and-play guy.
This is the type of draft class to wait on running back and get one late Day 2 or Day 3, not at No. 21 overall. But with their affinity for big, bruising running backs and wanting to be a power rushing attack, it can’t be ruled out that the Steelers head in that direction, especially with how the running back room looks right now.
