Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers backup quarterbacks tossed four touchdowns in Saturday night’s preseason win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, so the passing game was efficient. That wasn’t the case for the run game, however, as the Steelers rushed for 66 yards on 22 carries, an average of 2.6 yards per carry.
The run game is one area that former Steelers defensive lineman Chris Hoke wants to see improved moving forward.
“Where I want to see improvement from preseason Game 1 to preseason Game 2 is at the line of scrimmage. They did a good job protecting the quarterback. Let’s do a little bit better at getting some movement at the line of scrimmage,” Hoke said on KDKA’s Nightly Sports Call. “I thought the guys got knocked back a little bit. There weren’t a lot of running lanes. I think they’ll see that when they watch the film.”
Hoke brought up the fourth-and-1 run attempt that failed against the Jaguars.
“I saw a couple of guys when they brought the receivers in from the weak side, there was that fourth-and-1 that led to one of the touchdowns for the Jaguars and Kaleb Johnson ran the ball off the right side and Robert Woods got knocked back a little bit,” he said. “He’s got to be tougher in there and seal off the inside so Kaleb Johnson can get downhill so there’s some improvement. There’s some improvement [needed in] run blocking but overall physically they played well. It’s just getting a hat on a hat and moving guys.”
Steelers rookie running back Kaleb Johnson was near the top of many fans’ lists of players they were most looking forward to watching against the Jacksonville Jaguars. His NFL debut was far from flashy, though.
Johnson rushed for just 20 yards on eight carries (2.5 yards per carry), reeled in one catch for six yards and dropped another in the 31-25 win. He knows he must be better but was thankful for his first NFL action.
“There’s a lot of things that I can work on,” Johnson said. “I just wanted to get my feet wet and get a feel of the game. Everything’s faster.”
Expectations have been growing all summer for the Steelers’ third-round pick (No. 83 overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Johnson is coming off a breakout season in 2024, when he rushed for 1,537 yards and 21 touchdowns while averaging 6.4 yards per carry at Iowa. He also recorded 22 catches for 188 yards and two more scores.
That has caused many to believe Johnson could be Pittsburgh’s next franchise running back, but his preseason debut may have been disappointing to some.
Johnson is still confident he will translate his play to the next level.
“Just going out there and playing faster,” Johnson said of how he wants to build upon his performance. “Before the first game comes up, I’ll be all ready to go.”
Alan Saunders provided reporting from Jacksonville, Fla.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: [Former Steelers Player...
