When the Pittsburgh Steelers landed Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson at No. 83 overall late in the third round, the elation from the franchise could be felt across the NFL landscape. The Steelers sat tight, let the board fall to them, and landed one of the best running backs in the draft, giving Pittsburgh at true No. 1 workhorse at the position following the loss of Najee Harris in free agency.
Johnson joins a backfield featuring Jaylen Warren, Kenneth Gainwell, and — for the time being — Cordarrelle Patterson. Among those players, Johnson profiles as the best one-cut runner in offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s scheme, which should bode well for the rookie when it comes to playing right away in the NFL.
For former NFL running back Chase Edmonds, he sees a great deal of one former All-Pro running back in Johnson, comparing him to former Houston Texans star Arian Foster.
“I love Kaleb Johnson’s game. You talk about a guy that has just a natural feel for the zone scheme and he’s able to stretch the field horizontally. What I mean by that is that he stretches the defense, he gets some flow and, Manti [Te’o] you know that you hate when the back is making you go sideline to sideline,” Edmonds said Tuesday on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football. “Then he puts his foot in the ground, he gets north and south, he’s able to find these lanes in his own scheme.
“The guy that I see most in Kaleb Johnson, actually kind of runs just like him, is Arian Foster, who had a stellar, stellar career with the Houston Texans.”
That’s a great call by Edmonds. In fact, they are almost the same body type and run style, too. Foster measured in at 6006, 226 pounds coming out of Tennessee in 2009. He ran a 4.68 40-yard dash and didn’t really test all that well the rest of the way.
At the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine Johnson measured in at 6010, 224 pounds and ran a 4.57 40-yard dash, solid numbers for his height and weight. That’s pretty darn close to Foster overall.
Of course, Foster went undrafted and then worked his way into becoming one of the best running backs in football for a period of time in Houston. He made the Pro Bowl three straight years from 2010-12, was first-team All-Pro in 2010 and second-team All-Pro in 2011. He also made the Pro Bowl in 2014 and rushed for 6,472 yards and 54 touchdowns during his time in Houston across 76 games, eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark four times and leading the NFL in rushing in 2010 with 1,616 yards.
Foster also led the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 16 in 2010 and 15 in 2012. He had one heck of a career until injuries derailed him late in his career and saw him have a stop in Miami before being done with football.
Foster was that big, high-cut running back who excelled in Houston’s zone scheme under head coach Gary Kubiak.
Johnson plays a similar style and certainly looks the part compared to Foster. The comparison from Edmonds is rather good. If Johnson can achieve some of the success with the Steelers that Foster had in Houston, the selection will be a home run.
Here’s hoping the fit is as good on the field as it looks on paper between Johnson, the Steelers and Smith’s scheme.
