Player: RB Jaylen Warren
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: It’s hard to believe that we haven’t discussed Jaylen Warren in this series in months, considering the Steelers chose him over Najee Harris. With the series on hiatus when that took place, we’re still playing catch-up, but it’s time to update that.
While we don’t know what the Steelers will do in the draft, we know they committed to Jaylen Warren. Barring the spectacularly unlikelihood of releasing him before the start of the season, they are going to pay him over $5 million in 2025. And they opted to take that route rather than re-sign Najee Harris, their former first-round pick.
While Harris signed a one-year contract in free agency with a maximum value north of $9 million, the base value minus incentives is actually slightly less than the second-round restricted free agent tender the Steelers placed on Jaylen Warren.
We don’t even know if they even offered Harris a contract, though reports indicated they were talking. In contrast, the Steelers made it clear that they planned to tender Warren, a restricted free agent. They had a choice of which tag to use, and they opted for an elevated one.
Had they gone with the right of first refusal only, they could have saved a couple million. However, any team could attempt to sign Warren away, the Steelers getting nothing in return. With a second-round tender, the Steelers would gain a second-round pick if another team signed Warren.
Effectively, choosing the second-round tender ensured that the Steelers would keep Jaylen Warren. Likely, they would have been safe using the original-round tender, but they didn’t want to risk it. And the fact that they didn’t want to risk losing Warren is why his stock is up.
Even if the Steelers draft a rookie running back high, they clearly still have a place for Warren. He will be a big part of this offense, likely bigger than he had been before. That is, of course, assuming that he manages to stay healthy. It just so happens that 2024 was Warren’s worst season, both from a health and performance perspective.
With the new league year underway and the Steelers turning their roster over, it’s once again time to “take stock”. It took a while, but we finally saw some of that change the team talked about after the season ended. Certainly, the move to trade for WR DK Metcalf qualifies as a change, not to mention the accompanying contract.
There is still a long way to go before we know what this Steelers team is going to look like. Once the dust settles on free agency, we turn our attention to the draft, and so on. What other moves might the team make, perhaps unexpected acquisitions or departures? If they traded for one player, they could certainly trade for another, or trade one away. This is a Steelers team starving for postseason success, but how desperate are they for a playoff win in 2025?
