Steelers Now
The Pittsburgh Steelers may finally be ready to admit who their No. 1 running back is.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took a running back-by-committee approach through the first couple weeks of the 2025 regular season. That was far from the case during their Week 3 win over the New England Patriots, though.
Steelers running back Jaylen Warren saw a notable increase in his playing time as he received 80% of the snaps, which is the highest he has received in a game in his entire NFL career. Fellow running back Kenneth Gainwell, on the other hand, received just 26%.
However, Pittsburgh’s massive shift in running back usage shouldn’t come as a complete surprise.
Following Warren’s Week 2 performance, when he led the team with 48 rushing yards and 86 receiving yards, offensive coordinator Arthur Smith far from shut down the idea of leaning on him more.
“Certainly, if the guy earns that,” Smith said. “You’ve got to do whatever you’ve got to do to win the game too, but you also think about the totality of the season. We can’t ask anybody to run the ball 500 times. Maybe there’s somebody that can do it. I certainly haven’t seen it. That all goes into it.”
Smith stayed true to his word that Warren was not going to be a true bell cow, but he certainly made the most of his increased opportunities as he finished the afternoon with a team-high 47 rushing yards and 34 receiving yards.
Warren seems to be just fine with however the Steelers decide to use him, though.
“They’re gonna call a number any time and run fresh legs,” Warren said. “I don’t feel no type of way when any of the other running backs go in. … We feed off of each other, so I’m glad it’s the way it is.”
Only time will tell if Pittsburgh will go back to its running back-by-committee approach or continuing leaning more on Warren, but he has given them no reason to do otherwise.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Steelers Make Massive Shift in Running Back Usage vs. Patriots
