Tag Archives: Travis Homer

Steelers Report Card for TNF Loss to the Browns: Losing Control of the Classroom Edition

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From the gradebook of a preoccupied principal worrying his teacher may be losing control of the classroom, here is the Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card for the 2026 TNF loss to the Browns.

Maliek Collins sacks Aaron Rodgers in the Steelers 2026 TNF loss to the Browns

Maliek Collins sacks Aaron Rodgers in the Steelers 2026 TNF loss to the Browns. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

Quarterback
Aaron Rodgers went 22-40-299-2-2. Credit Rodgers for leading 3 touchdown drives, 2 of which came in the 4th quarter. He looked smart on all three. But he struggled for much of the rest of the night, throwing two picks and missing open receivers on multiple occasions. Grade: DSteelers, Report Card, grades,

Running Backs
Jaylen Warren ran for 95 yards on 17 carries and caught 3 passes for 33 yards. Travis Homer had 2 carries for minus 1 yards. Grade: B

Tight Ends
Darnell Washington caught 3 passes for 27 yards and Pat Freiermuth 3 for 17. Each man caught a touchdown and both men continued to block well. Grade: B

Wide Receivers
D.K. Metcalf had 5 catches for 115 yards on 9 targets. You’d like to say he looked like a true WR No. 1, except he gave up a taunting penalty. Roman Wilson had 3 catches for 74 yards but broke off his route to the middle of the field trying to get out of bounds. Michael Pittman Jr. had 2 catches for 15 yards. Germie Bernard had 2 grabs for 11 yards while Ben Skowronek had 1 for 7 yards. Individually each wide out had his moments, but they struggled to gain separation during the middle of the game on a night when the team needed more. Grade: C-

Offensive Line
Aaron Rodgers was sacked 5 times, but to be fair to the offensive line, the last 2 of those can likely be chalked up as “coverage sacks.” And the run blocking was better. This performance doesn’t negate the positive signs the line showed against Cincinnati, but it does confirm more progress is needed. Grade: D

Defensive Line
The Browns rushing attack didn’t make any noise until early in the 2nd quarter. Derrick Harmon left injured in the 2nd quarter after his 5th defensive snap? Coincidence? Doubtful. An excuse? No way. IF you take out Jaleel McLaughlin’s 28-yard touchdown run, the Steelers defense had a lot of success against the Browns. But that’s the problem, tackling appeared to be optional at times. Cam Heyward did force a fumble, but that can only pull the grade up so much. Grade: D

Linebackers
The inside linebackers were also complicit in the poor tackling/run containment, while T.J. Watt did register a strip sack which should have been a momentum-changer, but pressure from the linebackers was not consistent. Grade: D

Robert Spears-Jennings intercepts Deshaun Watson during the Steelers 2026 TNF loss to the Browns

Robert Spears-Jennings picks off Deshaun Watson to start the 4th quarter. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

Secondary
Deshaun Watson did his best Doug Williams Super Bowl XXII impersonation throwing more touchdown passes, two, than incompletions in the second quarter. To their credit, the unit tightened up and kept Cleveland out of the end zone in the 2nd half. And Robert Spears-Jennings heads-up interception got the Steelers back in the game. But the Browns got the yards they needed to get into field goal range. Grade: D

Special Teams
Cameron Johnston boomed off 5 punts pinning the Browns at the one once. And the Steelers punt return was solid, while Kaden Wetjen had one solid return. However, Wetjen was average on kick returns, and the Steelers gave up a 33-yard return helping set up a Browns field goal drive. Chris Boswell missed a 48-yarder in what would be a 3-point game. The Steelers needed their special teams to be special. Instead they were barely average: Grade: C-

Coaching
Mike McCarthy did an excellent job with his opening script of plays. And they looked to be building on another drive until an interception short-circuited the Steelers’ performance in all three phases for an entire quarter.

  • To his credit, McCarthy made adjustments.

The same can be said for defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. His defense started strong, put in an atrocious 2nd quarter, but rebounded in the second half.

  • Objectively, the issue is consistency.

Just about every area on the depth chart put some quality sequences of plays on tape, but they also put some horrid sequences on tape. If one of them could have just managed to attain a little more consistency, the outcome could easily have been different.

Subjectively, we saw a number of players get animated either on the field or the sidelines. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – we all likely remember the NFL Films clip of rookie Jack Lambert yelling at veteran Jack Ham – but McCarthy must harness this passion and energy constructively. Grade: D

Jack Sawyer tips a Deshaun Watson pass during the Steelers 2026 TNF loss to the Cleveland Browns

Leaping Jack Sawyer tips Deshaun Watson’s pass. Photo Credit: X.com

Unsung Hero Award
Tides in football games are altered by players give everything they’ve got, who play to the whistle and who, when they can’t quite achieve their objective find other ways to make an impact. Second year man Jack Sawyer was a step to slow too reach the quarterback, but by leaping he just nicked the ball, transforming a pass interference penalty into a momentum-shifting interception. For that, Sawyer wins the Unsung Hero Award for the Steelers 2026 Thursday Night loss to the Browns.

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Steelers Report Card for Loss to Patriots — Self Sabotage at Gillette Edition

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Taken from the gradebook of a teacher sad to see his students self-sabotage, here is the Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card for the 2026 loss to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

T.J. Watt closes in to sack Derek Maye in the Steelers 2026 loss to the Patriots.

T.J. Watt seconds before sacking Derek Maye. Photo Credit: Karl Roser, Steelers.com

Quarterback
Aaron Rodgers went 23-39 for zero touchdowns and 1 interception. The interception wasn’t his fault; he got zero help from his receivers and he got even less from his offensive line, but even controlling for that, too many of his passes were off target. Grade: DSteelers, Report Card, grades,

Running Backs
Jaylen Warren had 11 carries for 43 yards and 2 catches for 35 yards. Rico Dowdle had 7 carries for 22 yards and 2 catches for 22 yards. Travis Homer had 2 carries for 16 yards. Decent numbers, but the running backs could not establish any semblance of a rhythm. Grade: C-

Tight Ends
Pat Freiermuth had 4 catches for 32 yards on 5 targets and 1 carry in the tush push. Darnell Washington had one catch for 7 yards. Hard to say the tight ends were part of the problem, but easy to observe that they failed to step up as part of the solution. Grade: D

Wide Receivers
Rookie Germie Bernard looked to be the one bright spot here, until he let a pass bounce out of his hands to kill a scoring drive when a sliver of a comeback chance remained. D.K. Metcalf had 4 catches for all of 27 yards – and that includes a 16-yard quasi garbage-time catch. Roman Wilson caught 5 checkdown passes for 28 yards. Ben Skowronek had one catch for 2 yards.

So watch out for those Steelers wideouts on those sub-five yard passes. They’ll get you every time…

…Ah, once again, Generation X Steelers fans are left longing for the days of Charles Lockett, Derek Hill, Dwight Stone  and heck, why not Weegie Thompson? Grade: F

Offensive Line
Where to start? The unit let its quarterback get hit 7 times, sacked 4 times, 2 of which were strip sacks. There were a couple of flashes of respectability in the run blocking, but nothing of any sort of consequence and certainly not early enough in the game when the Steelers needed it the most. Grade: F

Defensive Line
Cam Heyward had another tipped pass and 3 tackles. Derrick Harmon led the team in tackles with 9 and had half of a sack. If you exclude two long runs by Patriots running backs, the Steelers contained the run well enough to win. Grade: B-

Linebackers
T.J. Watt had a sack and a half. Patrick Queen hauled in an interception. Payton Wilson had a tackle for a loss. Alex Highsmith had a sack and three tackles for losses. All good. But Highsmith had an off sides penalty that gave the Patriots new life, and two plays later TreVeyon Henderson cut through the heart of the Steelers defense like a knife – untouched by any linebacker. Grade: B-

Secondary
No Patriots receiver caught more than 3 passes and only one sniffed 100 yards. Romeo Doubs did burn the Steelers for a 63-yard gain, but the defense held after that. Grade: B-

Special Teams
Chris Boswell was 1-1 on field goals, missing a 57 yarder but making a 56 yarder with room to spare. Cameron Johnston boomed off 8 punts for a 48.1 yard average and pinned the Patriots inside the 20 on three separate occasions, arguably making him the MVP of the Steelers offense. Kaden Wetjen and Eli Heidenreich had solid days as returners, but the same can be said of New England’s returners. Grade: C

Coaching
Let’s start with the positive. Patrick Graham’s defense turned out a “above the line” performance. Yes, his unit suffered two critical lapses but, to the naked eye, both issues appear to be correctable.

And everything we’ve seen and heard about Graham indicates he can and will make those corrections….

…If it were only so easy to say the same thing about the offense.

To his credit, Mike McCarthy manned up and took responsibility after the game. He went as far as to intimate that he’d seen warning signs in practice (something Mike Tomlin never would have done.)

  • Fair enough. The first step towards solving a problem is to acknowledge it.

The bigger question is now that he’s embraced the elephant in the room, what can he, Brian Angelichio and, perhaps most importantly, offensive line coach James Campen do about it? While no phase of the Steelers offense played winning football against the Patriots, the offensive line was worst of all.

Fixing that won’t magically make D.K. Metcalf win combat catches or propel Roman Wilson to do more than catch check downs, but without better play from the line none of that will matter.

  • Right now, that seems like an impossible task for James Campen.

But let’s remember that after the Steelers dropped a 26-6 decision to the Ravens in week 2 of the 2014 season, no one was calling Mike Munchak an offensive line genius. By the end of the season they were.

So there is hope even if it doesn’t feel like it today. But its up to McCarthy, Angelichio and Campen to translate that hope into reality – and they need to do it fast. Grade: F

Nick Herbig closes in during the Steelers 2026 loss to the Patriots.

Nick Herbig closes in. Photo Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images via the Lexington Herald-Ledger

Unsung Hero Award
He ended the Patriots’ first drive with a forced fumble, he had 3 tackles for losses including one on third down that wrecked another drive, forcing a punt when the Pittsburgh still had a shot at a comeback. For that Nick Herbig wins the Unsung Hero Award for the Steelers 2026 loss to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

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Steelers Offense Implodes in 20-3 Loss to Patriots at Gillette Stadium

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Week 2 of the 2026 season saw the Pittsburgh Steelers drop a 20 to 3 decision to the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium.

Given the dynamics of NFL scheduling and Steelers tortured history in Foxborough the loss itself should surprise no one.

  • But the Steelers complete offensive impotence should alarm everyone.

Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy manned up, acknowledged his offense’s poor play and took full responsibility. Good for him. The critical question McCarthy must answer now is this: Can we chalk Pittsburgh’s offensive ineptitude to sloppy “September football” or are the Steelers woes more systemic?

Gabe Jackas strip sacks Aaron Rodgers during the Steelers week 2 loss to the Patriots in 2026

How bad was it? This Gabe Jacas hit on Aaron Rodgers wasn’t even a sack…. Photo Credit: AP via the Tribune-Review

SOSO: Same Old Steelers Offense. And Then Some…

Art Rooney Sr. had a term during his franchise’s 40-some-odd years in the wilderness: Same Old Steelers. While the term hasn’t been forgotten, it hasn’t been used much since Chuck Noll’s arrival in 1969.

  • Yet the term certainly applies to the Steelers offense throughout this decade.

Yes, during the first third or maybe even half of the 2020 season, the Steelers fielded an NFL varsity-worthy offense. But outside of that, the 2020s have seen the Steelers win in spite of their offense and almost never because of it.

The remedy, social media commentators have readily assured us:

  • Hire an offensive-minded head coach
  • Surround him with younger, innovative assistants
  • Be more aggressive in improving talent

Art Rooney II hired McCarthy, an offensive minded coach. McCarthy’s staff is well-renowned. Omar Khan has aggressively addressed the offense in the draft, free agency and with multiple trades.

Yet, two games into the 2026 campaign, the Steelers offense not only doesn’t look better than anything Mike Tomlin fielded in 2024 or 2025; against the Patriots it looked worse:

  • The Steelers went 2-12 on third down conversions
  • Patriots defenders sacked Aaron Rodgers 4 times and hit him 7
  • Rodgers suffered not one but two strip sacks
  • Pittsburgh’s best receiver, Germie Bernard caught 4 balls but bobbled a 5th that got picked off
  • D.K. Metcalf, the supposed No. 1 WR, had 4 catches for 27 yards – including garbage time
  • The Steelers defense secured 2 turnovers; the offense squandered both

Those numbers, while bleak, really fail to paint a picture of how pitifully Pittsburgh’s offense failed in Foxborough.

The Steelers offense opened with twin three and outs followed by a missed field goal. After that they opened the third quarter with a workmanlike drive where Rodgers found the rookie Bernard several times and Pat Freiermuth executed the tush push on 4th down.

They made it all the way to the New England 25. A three yard pass to D.K. Metcalf brought up to the 22. Rodgers then tried and failed to find Darnell Washington, bringing up 3rd and 7. Here’s what followed:

Christian Elliss folded Aaron Rodgers in half, knocking the ball loose, and a 3rd & 7 with a very makeable field goal became 4th and 43. Credit Troy Fautanu for recovering the ball, but the Steelers drafted him to protect the quarterback, not recovery strip sacks.

Troy Fautanu recovers a strip sack during the Steelers 2026 week 2 loss to the New England Patriots

Troy Fautanu saves six and recovers a strip sack. Photo Credit: AP via Tribune-Review

A similar self-sabotage sequence unfolded in the 4th quarter when the Steelers, theoretically at least, still had a chance rally.

The Steelers moved the ball deftly with Jaylen Warren’s running and Aaron Rodgers hitting Metcalf and Roman Wilson on underneath routes. At the Patriots 30 , Rodgers hit Warren who zigged, zagged and powered his way 25 yards to the 4. On cue, the Steelers’ offense self-destructed:

  • Elijah Ponder sacked Aaron Rodgers on first down, knocking them 9 yards back.
  • On second Rodgers hit Bernard, who had the ball bounce off his hands and into Gabe Jacas’.

Rodgers saved the touchdown with a tackle, but again, he didn’t stay out of retirement to make tackles.

Sandwiched in between these twin debacles was Christian Barmore’s strip sack of Rodgers and Elijah Ponder’s recovery of the ball that he returned for a touchdown.

There’s no sugar coating how bad the Steelers offense was against the Patriots. Sure, Warren, Rico Dowdle and Travis Homer logged some nice runs, but the running game never broached establishing a rhythm.

The offensive line deserves every ounce of criticism coming its way, but the truth is that several of Rodgers’ passes were off target and, when they weren’t, his receivers weren’t giving him any help.

Steelers Defense Solid Despite Lapses

Only 7 of the Patriots points were supplied by their defense. Their offense scored 13 more, not including a missed field goal. The truth is, the Steelers defense played well enough to win.

Patrick Queen intercepts Derek Maye in the 3rd quarter.

Patrick Queen Intercepts Derrick Maye. Photo Credit: AP via Tribune-Review

No, they didn’t deliver a 5 turnover performance that propelled the Steelers to victory in New England this time last year. But one has to wonder if would have been sufficient with this offense. Still, Patrick Graham’s defense made its share of splash plays:

The offense, however, only netted 4 yards following that fumble, although they were not helped by Jalen Ramsey’s jawboning that cost the offense 15 yards.

There were other lapses of course. New England’s only touchdown came on a 39-yard run where TreVeyon Henderson sliced through the middle of the Steelers defense with only Asante Samuel Jr. barely getting a hand on him.

Romeo Doubs also found a gaping hole in the Steelers secondary to steal a 63 yard reception, although Patrick Graham’s defense held there, forcing a field goal.

But when a defense holds an NFL offense to 13 points is playing winning football.

Take Away for Mike McCarthy: Stop the Offense from Self-Destructing

In beating the Falcons last week, Mike McCarthy joined his three immediate predecessors by winning his first game as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Alas, in week two he continued to follow in Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin’s footsteps, as both men lost their first games at Gillette Stadium, and lost them badly. These parallels are useful because they sharpen the focus on McCarthy’s challenge this morning.

Bill Cowher lost his first game at Gillette, because he couldn’t stop Bill Belichick’s spread offense. Mike Tomlin lost his in his first visit to New England because Tom Brady, in route to a 19-1 season, toasted his secondary.

  • In both cases, it wasn’t a question of scheme but rather one of talent.

Neither coach could find in-season fixes the fundamental deficiencies plaguing their defenses, but both men led their Steelers squads to division titles.

  • Its Mike McCarthy’s offense that needs fixing.

Whether talent or scheme is driving its disfunction remains to be seen, but the best good take away from the loss to the Patriots for McCarthy is a simple one:  Find away to stop his offense from self-destructing whenever it reaches scoring position.

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5 (Not So) Random Takes from the Steelers 28-9 Preseason Win Over the Packers

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Mike McCarthy’s Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Green Bay Packers 28-9 to open their 2026 preseason campaign on a hot and steamy night at Acrisure Stadium.

The win gave fans their long-awaited look at quarterbacks Will Howard and Drew Allar as well as wide receivers Germie Bernard and Kaden Wetjen along with cornerback Daylen Everette.

  • After watching a game chocked full of ESPN-worthy highlights, what are hard takeaways?

How about Mike McCarthy now has one more thing in common with Mike Tomlin than he does with Bill Cowher or Chuck Noll because McCarthy, like Tomlin, won his preseason debut whereas Cowher and Noll lost theirs….

Now that you’re prepared for a “Steelers Preseason” Final Jeopardy, let’s acknowledge that injuries are about the only hard truths that come out of the first preseason game of the summer. And fortunately the Steelers appeared to emerge relatively clean on that front.

But it was an exciting win, and it did leave commentators with a lot to comment on. So let’s comment.

Mason Rudolph evades Warren Brinson in the Steelers 2026 preseason opener vs the Packers.

Who doesn’t like a quarterback who knocks the helmet off of a defender? Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune Review.

1. Front and Center Focus Gives Us a Mixed Bag

The most important thing for the Steelers to get right this summer is to solidify their offensive line and strengthen their defensive spine.

  • The Packers game gave them their first test and results were mixed.

Pass protection was erratic. Mason Rudolph was only in for a handful of series and he was still sacked twice. Both Dylan Cook and Troy Fautanu got beat in critical snaps. The Steelers also averaged 2.6 yards on the ground, so the offensive line wasn’t exactly road-grading either.

Still, with that understood, the offensive line did give Rudolph enough protection to complete 10 of 11 passes and march the team to the one yard line.

On the flip side, the Steelers defense had a strong night overall, keeping the Packers out of the end zone for the entire game. Although Keeanu Benton got the start at nose tackle, both Yahya Black and Gabriel Rubio saw extended time and both men looked good, with Rubio logging six tackles.

2. Rudolph, Howard, Allar and the Quarterback Derby

Both Will Howard and Drew Allar made their NFL debuts and both men played very well.

Howard impressively ran the two-minute drill to set up Lew Nichols touchdown just before the end of the first half. Allar relieved him at the end of the third quarter, throwing two touchdown passes while running one in on his own.

Allar went 10 of 13 for 2 TDs and 163 yards with no sacks, while Howard went 10 of 11 for 93 yards and one sack. That’s about as good as anyone could have hoped for or expected.

But if you were to judge their performance by reactions on social media, you’d think the Steelers suddenly had a Joe Montana-Steve Young situation on their hands. OK, perhaps that exaggerates things slightly, but it is amazing to see the number of people who are ready to cut Mason Rudolph after watching Howard and Allar.

Yes, both Howard and Allar looked good, but they did most of their work playing against guys who, in a month’s time, will count themselves lucky if they land a tryout with the Brooklyn Pharaohs.

In contrast, the vast majority of the men Mason Rudolph played against will make the Packers’ opening day roster, and many will start. What really stuck out about Rudolph was his poise.

He didn’t have great pass protection, and Travis Homer wasn’t exactly “pounding the rock.” Yet he remained in command of the offense at all times to the point where his best pass of the night was officially an incomplete one:

Yes, we can and should be pleased to see Howard and Allar get off to good starts. But if Aaron Rodgers should become unavailable, this is the kind of quarterback I want taking his place.

3. Reclamation ROI in Real Time?

The Steelers defense put up a lot of stats, and several players made eye-catching plays. But the one man who really stood out was cornerback Asante Samuel Jr..

When Joey Porter Jr.’s hold-in began, someone on social media speculated that he might be in the process of Wally Pipping himself. That’s a bit extreme. But Asante Samuel Jr. played extremely well, and at this point looks to be a real asset in the secondary.

Rookie safety and 7th round draft pick Robert Spears-Jennings also looked good.

4. Wetjen Strikes Just When You Least Expect It

The only real eyebrow raising choice in the Steelers 2026 draft class was using a fourth-rounder on Kaden Wetjen. The Steelers drafted him as a kick returner, as he had a total of 13 catches in his college career.

And throughout training camp wise scribes such as Jim Wexell and Roy Countryman have been telling us that Wetjen’s been looking extremely sharp as a return man, but didn’t figure to be a factor in the passing game.

Against the Packers, Wetjen got to return 3 kicks and 2 punts and, while he didn’t do anything to look bad, he also did nothing special. No sooner did that thought occur to me than Drew Allar found him on this slant route:

  • Quite impressive, even if a stumble cost him a touchdown.

Yet, Allar found him later in the end zone, and the evening ended with Wetjen leading the Steelers in receiving yards and catching a touchdown.

Kaden Wetjet catches a touchdown from Drew Allar during the Steelers 2026 preseason win over the Packers

Kaden Wetjet catches a Drew Allar touchdown. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The odds favor Wetjet’s 79-yard streaking reception to be more of a Matthew Thomas type play (name ring a bell but can’t quite place this one? Then click here) than Franco Harris taking it to the house in his preseason debut, but he did show us that we shouldn’t sleep on him being a part of the wide receiving room.

5. A Word About the Offense

The Steelers offense scored four touchdowns, had 17 first downs, converted 7 of 13 third downs and had a slight edge in time of possession. The numbers alone, of course, in a preseason game tell us next to nothing.

  • But the unit passed “the eye test.”

In the heyday of Kenny Pickett’s preseason glory days the Steelers offense put together some nice drives, but they had a video game feel too them dissipated immediately once the games counted for real.

In the booth during the game Art Rooney II described Mike McCarthy as “meticulous” and this is how his offense felt. Even when you control for the quality of competition, the Steelers offense played like a unit that knew what it wanted to do, and was going out and doing it. And the maintained that same “look and feel” with three separate quarterbacks.

Finally, seeing rookie fullback Riley Nowakowski lining up in a Power-I Formation early in the game? That was a true cherry on top.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is only preseason. Let’s keep it real. But it’s far better to look good than to look bad.

 

 

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Steelers 2026 NFL Draft Needs: Do They Need a (another) Running Back?

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The Pittsburgh Steelers have made several high-profile moves at running back recently, and head into the 2026 NFL Draft with 2 veterans playing on second contracts and one second-year player working on his rookie contract.

  • So a premium pick is, probably, off the table in upcoming draft.

Yet, even a glance at Steelers history reveals that late round draft picks such as Dick Hoak, Rocky Bleier, Frank Pollard, Merril Hoge and Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala form a critical part of the franchise’s legacy at running back.

So does that mean that the Steelers will or should add to their running back depth chart, either early or late in the 2026 NFL Draft? Let’s take a look.

Jaylen Warren and Kaleb Johnson at Steelers OTAs in the spring of 2025.

Jaylen Warren and Kaleb Johnson at OTAs. Photo Credit: X.com

Steelers Running Back Depth Chart Entering the 2026 NFL Draft – The Starter

In this age of AI it is not too hard to imagine someone prompting a major LLM agent such as Chat GPT about Jaylen Warren’s 2025 campaign and getting something like this (full disclosure, this was made up by me):

Although the Steelers thought enough of Jaylen Warren to give him a second contract on the eve of the 2025 season, the running back found himself eclipsed by free agent Kenneth Gainwell, who not only got playing time at Warren’s expense, he won the team MVP Award. In many ways the 2025 season could be considered to be a disappointing one for Jaylen Warren.

Or something like that. That conclusion, while logical, is wrong.

Jaylen Warren was easily one of the best players on a 2025 Steelers offense that was starved for playmakers. In his first year as a starter, Warren got more carries, rushed for more yards and at a higher yards-per-carry rate than 2024.

Jaylen Warren, Steelers vs Dolphins, Steelers vs Dolphins MNF

Jaylen Warren rushes. Photo Credit: Chaz Palla, Tribune-Review

He also had a strong year receiving, and posted his best yards-from-scrimmage total of his career, and his best “success rate” for those of you who love meta stats, of his career. It is also important to note that he only fumbled once – and ball security had been one of the concerns about Warren as he took on a bigger role going into the season.

Steelers Running Back Depth Chart Entering the 2026 NFL Draft – The Backups

When the Steelers lost Kenneth Gainwell in free agency, they immediately turned to Rico Dowdle, a five year veteran coming off back-to-back 1000 yard rushing seasons. Steelers fans will remember him from the Cowboys’ 2024 win over the Steelers at Acrisure on Monday Night Football, where Dowdle out played Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb.

Behind Dowdle the Steelers have Kaleb Johnson, whom they drafted in the 4th round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Johnson’s rookie year was marred by his failing to field a live kick return which proved to be the turning point in the Steelers loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Kaleb Johnson, Steelers vs Jaguars preseason 2025

Kaleb Johnson rushes in his preseason debut. Photo Credit: AP via Tribune-Review

Johnson only got spot duty at running back in 28 games. And while he’s 2.5 yards-per-carry average is unimpressive, he did have a 50% success rate.

Technically the Steelers did sign a second running back in free agency, Travis Homer a 7-year veteran most recently out of Chicago. The Steelers however brought Homer to Pittsburgh as a core special teamer – he’s had 7 carries in the last two years and hasn’t cracked double digits since 2022.

Max Hurleman and Lew Nichols round out the Steelers off season depth chart at running back.

Steelers 2026 Draft Needs at Running Back

On paper the Steelers enter the 2026 NFL Draft with a solid running back depth chart led by Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle.

That gives them an established starter and a starter-capable backup with a developmental prospect behind them.

Steelers Draft, Steelers Draft Needs scale

Steelers Draft Needs Scale 2023

The purist in me says, “The Steelers still need more depth” remembering that the Steelers last won a Super Bowl with Willie Parker, Rashard Mendenhall, Mewelde Moore and Gary Russell all on their opening day roster.

And while that kind of running back depth might be desirable, it probably isn’t realistic in the NFL of 2026. If the Steelers can find good value on the middle or later rounds by adding a running back, they should avail themselves of the opportunity.

Still, they’ve got strong depth and the Steelers need at running back in the 2026 NFL Draft should be considered Fair.

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