There aren’t many questions surrounding the Steelers’ approach to the running back position. As a rookie last season, Najee Harris put forth a workload worthy of a Pro Bowl selection and accounted for around 75% of Pittsburgh’s rush attempts, rushing yards, and rushing touchdowns. While that may not sound overwhelming, the next closest player, Benny Snell Jr., only accounted for about 8% of the team’s rush attempts and 6% of the team’s rushing yards. Despite the seemingly small contribution, Snell is still the favorite to back up Harris next season, according to The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly. 
The Steelers’ offensive backfield doesn’t have a ton of experience. The oldest running back on their roster, Trey Edmunds, 27, has never started a game, has 31 career carries, and hasn’t had a carry since November 2019. Every other running back on the roster is 24 years old or younger. After Kalen Ballage announced he was stepping away from the NFL to coach, Pittsburgh’s roster only holds three running backs who had carries for the Steelers in the 2021 season: Harris, Snell, and Anthony McFarland Jr. After them and Edmunds, the only backs on the roster are two undrafted rookies: Mataeo Durant and Jaylen Warren.
McFarland currently has too small a sample size to depend on. During his two years in the league, McFarland has played in 13 games, carrying the ball 36 times for 116 yards. Last year, he only appeared in two games. He had three carries and three yards in those two games. Whether it’s health, size, or ability, Snell is clearly the preferred backup option over McFarland right now.
Snell has had more opportunities to showcase his abilities than McFarland. Snell was around for two years before Harris showed up, backing up James Conner. In those two years, Snell got the opportunity to start five games and contribute in many more. Kaboly compiled the stats of Snell’s starts and any game in which he had at least 12 carries, a total of ten games. Omitting an anomalous start against Washington in 2020, Snell averaged 17 carries for 72 yards per game, averaging 4.2 yards per rush in those nine games. In a full season of those opportunities, Snell would project at 1,150 yards.
Snell’s body of work in previous seasons supports the argument that he can be relied upon as Harris’ relief. But, even if the Steelers did want to add another back to the stable, what options do they have? They have the option of having the backup running backs reflect the Ravens’ starters from last year following season-ending injuries to J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards, as Latavius Murray and Devonta Freeman are available. (Even if Le’Veon Bell were planning to play in 2022, and not focus on a potential boxing career, his Steelers past and recent performance likely makes him a non-starter here.) Past those three, veterans Carlos Hyde, David Johnson, and Devontae Booker are all free agents. Are any of these options an improvement on Snell? Potentially, but it may not be worth the money and playbook study necessary to bring them level with where Snell is at now.
More potential names could surface as team’s trim their rosters down to the final 53. Myles Gaskin in Miami, Chris Carson in Seattle, Tevin Coleman in New York, and D’Onta Foreman in Carolina could all be on the chopping block come late August and find themselves looking for work.
Still, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where Pittsburgh doesn’t enter the 2022 season with a 1-2-3 of Harris-Snell-McFarland. As attractive as those other options may sound, Pittsburgh has no interest in reducing Harris’ carries. If healthy, Harris will continue his role as a bell-cow, with Snell and McFarland only appearing in rare moments of exhaustion or for special situations. McFarland has shown he can play in a situational role and Snell has proven he can be effective when given a bulk-carry opportunity (for instance, if Harris gets injured), but the importance of the question of who backs ups Harris is moot as long as Harris stays healthy.
It would be hard to not be an upgrade over Snell.
Edmunds is more of a fullback than a halfback, if I remember correctly. Someone can update me if I am mistaken.
One of Miami’s backs-either Ahmed or Gaskin-will be available. Each has a different skillset than Harris and has experience, youth, and has shown promise recently. If Pittsburgh wants an upgrade/compliment over McFarland and/or Snell, they should keep tabs on Miami’s backfield.
That’s correct. He’s more of a special teams piece; a poor man’s Brandon Bolden, if you will.
I would prefer Gaskin, given his versatility, which probably means Ahmed will be the one cut. I also wish they would look at Justin Jackson, as he seemed to fare well with limited touches in LA
Jackson excelled as a second back, I agree, and is versatile in that he can run between tackles and outside as well. Having plucked Kalen Ballage from the Chargers previously, I would imagine that Pittsburgh should have a familiar experience language-wise should they decide to go that route.
The days of Pittsburgh being able to either pass or run looks bleak. It seemed like they got the lead with Roethlisberger and then just kept running it with a great back. I don’t know if Harris even averaged 4 ypc last year
well if they played the Browns every week, he’d be a HOFer already
And if the Browns played Burrow every week, they’d be undefeated. Pittsburgh is gonna have a hard time scoring points this year….and maybe for awhile
Being a Browns fan looks bleak. One sh1t storm QBto another. It has to be killing you guys that the former Browns won a super bowl in another city. A single Cleveland Brown team couldn’t even hold Kordell Stewart’s jock strap. I dislike the Steelers with a passion, but nothing worse than a bitter Browns trying to make them better than the Squealers. At least the Bungles and Ravens fans have can legitimately to harass Steelers fans. Cleveland Dogpoo fans don’t have that luxury. Never been good and never will be. Browns are just that manifested maggots corpse you see along side the road. Houston was more deserving of another NFL team than Cleveland.
brownsbacker is fine . nothing wrong with supporting your own team and questioning your opposition.
makes for some interesting banter
imagine supporting the nuttings and pirates and disliking the rooneys and Steelers…
very odd, but to each their own I suppose
Pirates fan…..haha. Did you just write that about the Browns? And you’re a Pirates fan? That’s the team that will NEVER win anything. You’re not going to win when your payroll is 60 million. The Pirates will continue to be a AAA team for everyone else. The Pirates are so cheap they have to have the same team colors as every team in Pittsburgh. Why is that? Seriously? Why does every team in Pittsburgh have the same colors?
I actually like the black and gold theme.
but ya the pirates “We’ll spend when it matrers” lie was proven false after the 2013 season that saw such progress, let Justin Morneau, Marlon Byrd, Gerrit Jones and heart and soul of the team AJ Burnett walk
Huntington famously said 14.1 mil was way too much to spend on a pitcher (ace of playoff team and locker room leader) to qualify AJ Burnett (5 mil lower than standard #1 SP market price)
coming off their most successful season in 20+ years , the pirates only spent 7 mil…
yes 7 mil on 2 free agents to supplement the loss of cleanup hitter Byrd and staff ace AJ Burnett.
Also let Morneau walk who was only demanding 8 mil and went on to win the 2014 NL batting title
over the next 3 seasons the WS potential team was slowly dismantled after achieving absolutely nothing while ownership refused to supplement a strong core with any type of outside help, and instead dumped any player due a raise in arbitration.
much like Burnett, the pirates management saw minimal value in paying Gerrit Cole , who was dumped to the Astros for minimal return, while Cole would go on to win a World Series and collect a CY Young award shortly after