The first guy up is Jaylen Warren of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay, we all know Pittsburgh's modus operandi is to run the ball and run it often. Najee Harris was a little banged up last season, so we're not going to discredit that too much with what he had going on. But the key is, like I said, he's starting to pick up a few nagging little injuries. He had a Lisfranc last season that lingered on to the end of the season. Right now, all indications are that he's fully healthy. But again, anytime you get foot or lower-level injuries with a running back when they're doing a lot of cutting, you want to be leery. So if you're going to spend high draft capital on a guy like Najee Harris, you want to make sure that you back him up. And again, Jaylen Warren proved himself last season. He was an undrafted free agent who came in and did exceptionally well. He actually outplayed Najee behind that offensive line.
Let's look at a couple of numbers. Najee had 272 attempts, which was the fifth most in the league, and he only had barely a thousand yards, actually 1,034. And that put him at number 15. But here's the kicker: he had 3.8 yards per carry, which was bottom of the barrel. Jaylen Warren, on the other hand, had 77 attempts for 379 yards with a 4.9 yards per carry. And at that clip, if Jaylen had the workload Najee received, he would have finished with 1,333 yards, which would put him in the top four only behind Josh Jacobs, Derrick Henry, and Nick Chubb. Now, again, I know these are projected numbers, but he was on that trajectory.
And another thing is Mike Tomlin and the coaching staff trust Jaylen Warren in pass protection. He ended up being the third-down back in the latter part of the season, actually when Kenny Pickett received the start. Jaylen Warren was in there on every third down. Now, again, a lot of that could have been because Najee was banged up, but they trust Jaylen Warren in his pass pro. That's huge, especially when you have a rookie, well, he's not a rookie this year, but last year when he was a rookie, Kenny Pickett, they needed to trust and have somebody who's going to protect their asset. Kenny Pickett is the franchise player, the cornerstone right now. So that right there shows that they trust him in those situations. And now, with a bolstered offensive line, Pittsburgh has added pieces here and there, so the offensive line should be better.
Jaylen Warren is a handcuff that you want to have, especially if you draft Najee Harris. You want to back him up with Jaylen Warren.
Comentarios