The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted RB Kaleb Johnson to fill the void after Najee Harris left in free agency. He is a back, argues Mark Kaboly, with a similar style, but perhaps with a bit more oomph. One would hope, given that they just let a former first-round pick walk. While he liked the selection, Kaboly reserves some skepticism over his ultimate outcome.
“Kaleb Johnson’s a guy [that], you didn’t expect him to be there at 83. He brings that Najee Harris type of style, as in a big, bruising, powerful guy, that has some more giddy-up in him”, he said on the Kaboly+Mack podcast.
But then he started introducing caveats about his Iowa tape, which is not unfair. “A lot of the clips you see of him, there’s some wide-open holes, there’s some pancakes there that, I mean, you could gain about seven yards right there”, he said. But at least Kaleb Johnson had those long runs, where Najee Harris had virtually none. The Steelers will take breakaway touchdowns whether the running back is responsible or the blocking.
Indeed, the Steelers are the only team in the league with just one 40-plus-yard run over the past four seasons. And as I’m sure you know, Jaylen Warren authored that one, a 74-yard touchdown run. Najee Harris never recorded a run longer than 37 yards with the Steelers. And Kaleb Johnson looks more explosive in his college tape than Harris did, even factoring in the blocking. Not that Harris didn’t have great blocking in college—which he did, better than Johnson.
“Is he gonna turn into a star? Those running backs, even if they do have a high pedigree, are usually hit or miss”, Kaboly said of running backs like Harris and Johnson. “He could come out and be a star, or he just might not have, what we think that he has in college, can transfer over to the pros. Even though I thought it was a good pick, good value, that’s why you still have to say, ‘Let me wait and see what he can do’”.
Even with the muted enthusiasm from many about Kaleb Johnson, many were surprised that he was still available for the Steelers to take in the third round. Perhaps due to the depth of the running back class, the run on the position did not precede them. Either way, the Steelers knew backs like Johnson were coming out when they let Najee Harris walk.
It would be interesting to see how the Steelers ranked the running backs though. How many burners did they have ranked high, some of which came off the board before Johnson? Would they have preferred to draft a quicker back? After all, they did talk about Johnson in terms of adding explosiveness to the offense. But there were certainly other backs who were more explosive. In comparison to Najee Harris, though, Johnson definitely has more of that giddy-up. We just don’t know if it will translate into those elusive 40-yard runs.
