The Steelers have a quarterback again. In a related matter, they have a running game again.
It's kind of hard to establish the run when everybody knows you can't pass. That was last year's issue (one of them, anyway). Defenders filled the box as if it were a crowded elevator.
Room for one more?
Can we fit eight in here?
Ben Roethlisberger's enormous presence changes all that. But he isn't the only key player returning from an injury plagued season.
James Conner's back, too.
Raise your hand (columnist sheepishly does) if you thought Conner's days as a starter were numbered when he left the opener against the Giants, injured yet again. That meant he'd left three of his previous four starts on account of injuries, plus this: He'd missed 11 games and parts of several others over his first three-plus seasons.
Raise your hand (columnist sheepishly does) if you thought it was time for more Benny Snell Jr., who looked great against the Giants.
Mike Tomlin had other ideas. He told people, emphatically, before the season that Conner was his "bell cow," and one bad night wasn't going to change his mind.
Conner has rewarded his coach's patience. Five games later, he is on pace for 1,203 yards, 11 touchdowns and a career-best 4.7 yards per carry. He looks very much like his 2018 self, which is to say, like a Pro Bowl-quality runner. Last season would appear to be the aberration.
Conner's advanced numbers (as I'm sure Kevin Cash could tell you) are mostly outstanding, notably his average yards after contact and broken-tackle percentage. But it's the eye test that should tell you he looks every bit like his 2018 self.
Did you see that tight spin move at the line against the Titans on the first drive? How about the subsequent stiff arm on Jayon Brown? Conner's running like a bull again.
From this vantage point, talent was never the issue. If you watched Conner's college career, you couldn't help but see the talent. He could run you over or make you miss. He was NFL-ready after his sophomore season, when he beat out the previous year's Heisman Trophy winner, Jameis Winston, for ACC Player of the Year.
After battling cancer and missing nearly all of the 2015 season with a knee injury, Conner eventually regained his stride as his senior year progressed. Any NFL scout who watched tape of the upset at Clemson could see that.
Yet I still hear the word "overdrafted" when it comes to Conner, whom the Steelers took at the end of the third round, 105th overall, in 2017, right after San Francisco took C.J. Beathard and right before Seattle took a person named Amara Darboh.
The implication, when people say Conner was "overdrafted," is that the Steelers made a sentimental reach for a hometown hero.
Conner's breakout year of 2018 should have ended that kind of talk. He wasn't as good as Le'Veon Bell in his prime, but he was better than the 2017 version of Bell. Conner gave the Steelers more touchdowns, more yards per carry, more yards per catch and more big plays than Bell did in his final season here.
If you want to talk "overdrafted," how about the first back taken in '17 — Leonard Fournette, fourth overall?
Fournette's career: 701 carries, 2,804 yards, 4.0 yards per carry, 19 touchdowns.
Conner's career: 458 carries, 2,032 yards, 4.4 yards per carry, 20 TDs.
Not bad for a guy taken 101 picks later (Fournette has an edge in receiving, although Conner has more TDs there, too).
The question was, and still is, whether Conner can stay on the field.
To that end, perhaps, Tomlin has altered his approach.
The fairest way to judge this is to look at Conner's workload compared to the team's other backs when he plays the majority of a game. Two years ago, in those games, Conner accounted for 87% of the running back carries.
This year, when he plays the majority of a game (which would exclude the Giants game), Conner has accounted for just 69% of the running back carries, although his workload increased against the Titans. We'll see what's on tap for Sunday's massive AFC North battle in Baltimore.
Turns out 2017 was a pretty good draft for backs. Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey, Fournette, Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, Chris Carson, Aaron Jones and Kareem Hunt were among those taken. Six of those guys were taken ahead of Conner, which seems about right.
This seems about right, too: Conner, when healthy, is a good NFL player.
He's proving it again.
