The run game of the Pittsburgh Steelers became something of an afterthought in 2018. The team sat on their hands waiting for Le’Veon Bell to show up for half the season and when it became clear he was never going to be there, the team really didn’t know what to do.
But this season promises to be different. The uncertainty of who will run the football is gone and the unit as a whole is better than last season. Let’s take a look at the primary running backs heading into training camp.
Starter-James Conner returns coming off of a 973-yard rushing effort. Conner actually finished with 1,470 combined rushing and receiving yards after missing three games with an injury. Pittsburgh should trust Conner more this time around and have a better scheme in place to match his skills. Conner should be much better this season with a gameplan created for him rather than working within one built for Bell.
Backups-The Steelers have tremendous depth at the running back spot this season. Jaylen Samuels and Benny Snell Jr. are each capable of carrying a heavy workload in the run game and while their styles are very different, could provide excellent production and change of pace. Snell, in particular, has legitimate NFL starter potential.
Outlook-On paper, it looks like Pittsburgh could use a platoon of running backs to create a powerful rushing attack. But I think we all know better. Head coach Mike Tomlin loves to run the wheels on his feature back and give very few reps to any other backs on the roster.
No matter how good Samuels or Snell look in training camp and the preseason, we’d be shocked if either got significant touches in the regular season.
