The Steelers are going to be looking for a new running back in 2021. Here are five players who could replace James Conner in Pittsburgh.
If the Steelers have an offensive week spot right now, it’s their lack of a running game. They have about five games with less than 50 rushing yards.
In Steelers history, they have not had a rushing performance like that ever. Going into 2021, it’s obvious there will have to be drastic changes to their running back squad. As likable as James Conner is as a player, and his story of returning from Hodgkins, he is not getting the job done. Add to that the number of injuries since assuming rushing duties. In 2018 he missed three games near the end of the season. In 2019 he missed an additional six games due to injury.
Then in 2020 against Buffalo, he has incurred his third injury this season. He got injured against the Giants and then missed week four. Plus he missed Weeks 12 and 13 to COVID. While he has more rushing yards this season than he did in 2019, Conner will probably fall short of the 973 rushing yards he had in 2018. Conner is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2020 season. The Steelers would, it seems, be justified in not resigning Conner.
Conner’s Back up Benny Snell has done even worse. In week one, he racked up 113 rushing yards against the Giants. In the 13 games since, he has only rushed for 161 yards. That comes to 12.38 yards a game since week two. Considering in 2019, he had 426 total rushing yards. He is poised only to get 346 yards unless the Steelers can find some way to run the ball against the Bengals, Colts, or Browns.
Interestingly enough, rookie Anthony McFarland has only played in nine games and rushed 27 times. Yet he is averaging 10.1 yards a game. As a receiver, McFarland has 9 yards per reception and 5.0 receiving yards a game in that same time frame. Snell is only averaging 5.4 yards per reception and 2.9 yards per game. The Steelers should try starting McFarland against the Bengals; he certainly couldn’t do any worse than Snell.
The Steelers certainly have many hard contract decisions coming up. Decisions about their running backs amongst the choices they make. The question then becomes, if they part ways with Conner, how do they replace him. Snell has proven he is no replacement. McFarland could possibly replace Conner, but they need to run him more. The Steelers then have free agency or the draft. Using free agency or the draft here are five potential replacements for Conner.
Travis Etienne
Some NFL mock drafts do not have many running backs going in the first round. One has the Steelers selecting this player, while another has him going to Tampa Bay. Suffice to say, until the NFL occurs, there is always one team that makes on selection no one expects. However, the possibility exists Travis Etienne, the running back from Clemson, could be on the board.
Face it; the Steelers lack an explosive running back. Conner and Snell have not cut the mustard, so to speak. Etienne could be the solution to their rushing game. He is the highest-rated running back in the draft so far. As Etienne’s coach said he’s a blue-collar guy with a blue-collar work ethic. A trait all Pittsburgh fans would love.
He’s 5’10” 200 pounds. He runs a 4.46 forty. Scouts like him not so much for the number of rushing yards he has posted but for what he does when he touches the ball. In his four years at Clemson, he has rushed for 4796 yards. More impressive is that he is averaging 7.2 yards per carry. His longest rush in 2020 was 72 yards. He also has 1079 total reception yards at Clemson, which may not seem like a lot, but he is averaging 11.4 yards per reception. What he does after he catches the ball similar to Le’Veon Bell’s style of play.
He has broken 204 tackles on 648 carries. Though averaging 7.2 yards per carry, he is also averaging 4.5 yards after contact. He also has 43 runs of 20 plus yards in the last two years. Simply put, he sees a hole, and he’s gone. He is also averaging 17 touchdowns a year. Also, he does not go down when defensemen hit him initially, and he makes things happen when he carries the ball. Etienne is the type of back the Steelers need and do not have.
Every player has a weak spot. In Etienne’s case, he has a tendency to fumble on occasions as he did in the Georgia Tech and North Carolina games. He’s not the biggest back in the draft, but he’s not small either. He may not be as powerful say as Jerome Bettis. With his fast speed, he does not need to be.
Whether or not the Steelers would be able to draft Etienne, we won’t know till the draft. Indeed, the Steelers fans would have a lot to be excited about with him in the backfield.
Chuba Hubbard
If Etienne is not available in the draft, this next kid should be. This player invokes images of Bam Morris, Barry Foster, and Jerome Bettis. Plus, he has a name you can’t forget. In case you have not guessed it’s Chuba Hubbard, the running back from Oklahoma State. Like the Steelers Chase Claypool, he is Canadian as well. He could be the perfect counterpart to Mapleton.
Hubbard is 6’1” 208 pounds. His projected 40 time is 4.52. Some have said his size is deceitful as he runs much stronger than his 208 pounds indicates. Right now, depending on which report you look at, he’s either ranked as the third or sixth-best running back behind Travis Etienne, but some think he could move up in rankings by draft day. Still, he’s projected as either a late first-round or second-round choice in 2021.
In his career at Oklahoma State, he has rushed for 3459 yards. I would have been more, but Hubbard has gotten a little banged up this season. He only played in seven of the to games this season. Though some have questioned his decision not to opt for the NFL last year and think he has not been as solid in part due to injury.
So if you go by his 2019 season, he averaged 6.4 yards per carry with 2094 yards. In his college career, he’s not a bad receiver either he averaged 9.0 yards a reception. If he can come close to that in the NFL, he will make things happen. He has also rushed for 33 touchdowns while he only has three from receiving. He runs hard, has good balance, good instincts, and vision. He’s more the Barry Foster or Jerome Bettis type of back, not a Le’Veon Bell speedster.
While he could be a productive rusher in the NFL, he has areas he needs to improve. While he has power, it’s not as much as some would like. He’s more of a straight line running back, not likely to make cuts to break runs like the speedier backs. His worst critique is that he has looked horrible in his pass blocking, something all backs need to excel at in the NFL. However, good coaching could fix that problem if that his worst problem.
So while there are a few other running backs in the 2021 draft, somehow, despite the areas he needs improvement, a name like Chuba Howard seems tailor-made for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Aaron Jones
In the free agency market, there is one back who would fit in the Steelers offense nicely. He could pay huge dividends if the Steelers could sign him. That would be Aaron Jones, the running back for the Green Bay Packers. Jones Is 5’9” 208 pounds and a speedster if he breaks a tackle.
Jones entered the NFL in the 2017 season from Texas El-Paso. In four seasons with Green Bay, he has rushed for 3083 yards. In 2019 Jones broke the 1000 yard mark. He looks poised to surpass the 1000 yard mark again in 2020. With three games left, he needs 173 more yards. He is averaging 74.8 yards per game, so if he can manage that in his last three games, he should surpass that mark again. Another factor to like about Jones is that he has averaged 5.1 yards per carry for his entire career. Not too bad. Very few backs average that over a career. Not Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith, nor Franco Harris. He is 12th in the NFL for yards per attempt for running backs with over 500 carries. The only active player in front of him is Nick Chubb, who has 5.27 yards per carry.
Many consider Jones to be a home run hitter in that he can break the long play on any carry. Certainly, the type of running back the Steelers lost when they failed to re-sign Le’Veon Bell. Plus, in two years, he has scored 24 touchdowns. Another aspect of the Steelers running game missing in 2020. Also, this should grab your attention. The Steelers in all of 2020 have 67 first downs by running the ball. In all of 2020 so far, Jones has 41 rushing first downs. That’s 61 percent as many first downs as the Steelers have run for all season. The lack of rushing first downs has hurt the Steelers in their last five games.
Jones is explosive, he’s a good receiving back as well. His only knock has been some durability. He missed eight games in his first two seasons. In total, he may end up missing two games in 2020. Not as bad as Conner, at least not yet anyway. The only other downside to Jones would be his contract. He is likely to ask for a four-year deal in the $50 million range. That would put his yearly salary in the $13 million-plus range. For a team like the Steelers who will be cash strapped and have many other players to resign, that may be a bit steep. If so, there are a few other alternatives that would be more affordable.
Kenyan Drake
The next free agent out there that could help the Steelers running game could be Kenyan Drake, the running for the Arizona Cardinals.
Drake 6’1”, 211 pounds started his career with the Miami Dolphins. Drake was not having a stellar career in Miami and over three and a half seasons had 1523 rushing yards or about 507 yards a season. Arizona saw his potential, and they had to make a deal due to the injuries they sustained in the 2019 season. So they gave Miami a conditional 6th round draft choice and got Kenyan Drake.
Certainly, the move proved beneficial for Drake. In two years with Arizona, he has rushed for 1491 yards 32 less than he rushed for Miami in three and a half years. With the Cardinals, he has averaged 745.5 yards a season, and 2020 is not over. Definitely, he has the potential to give the Steelers the same type of production as well. Also, the chances of him resigning with the Cardinals was slim at best, and they knew that when they made the trade for him and only gave up a 6th round choice. Especially since Chase Edmonds will still be under contract for the Cardinals, he was a short-term solution to the Cardinals’ immediate rushing problems. He could also be a short term solution for the Steelers as well; if they signed him for, say, four years, that would give them the time to draft a running back in 2022 or 2023.
Like Aaron Jones signing, Drake could be the problematic part. It largely depends on what he asks for in a contract. That said, whereas Jones might ask for a four-year deal worth $50 million, Drake could be in the four years $25 million range. That makes the Steelers signing him a lot more likely than trying to sign Aaron Jones. About $5-6 million a season fits their budget more than $13 million-plus a season.
Drake has the playmaking ability to open up the Steelers rushing game, especially since he has rushed for more first downs than Jones, 51, only 16 less than the whole steelers team has rushed for. Plus, he still has three games left. Fans should consider Drake as a long term solution, but if they can sign him, he can stabilize their rushing game for two or three seasons, which would be long enough to find a rookie replacement. Drake is the type of back who could bring a lot of excitement to the Steelers’ backfield.
Leonard Fournette
The last back would be a huge gamble and not their first option. Sometimes gambles pay off. That would be Tampa Bay Running back Leonard Fournette, who is 6’0” and 228 pounds.
When he came into the league, Jacksonville had high hopes for him. He rushed for 1040 yards and 9 touchdowns. Then he got injured, missing three games. In 2018 he ended up missing half the season to another injury. He seemed to bounce back in 2019, rushing for 1152 yards and only missing one game. Then as a surprise, Jacksonville cut him just before the start of the 2020 season. Jacksonville coaches said after they brought in James Robinson and Devine Ozigbo they liked what they saw. Coaches thought they would be a better fit than Fournette.
Not long after Jacksonville cut him, he landed in Tampa Bay. When they signed him, one had to wonder what Tampa was thinking. They had just drafted Ke’Shawn Vaughn and had signed LeSean McCoy and had Kenjon Barner and Ronald Jones II. It was looking like running back by committee at the start of the season. Someone was going to sit on the bench with a deep backfield. Fournette has gotten some playing time, not a lot. Ronald Jones has been the workhorse this season with 900 rushing yards. Fournette has 271 yards on 69 attempts. But he can be a power back when needed.
If Fournette can stay healthy for the bulk of a season as he did in 2019, then he could conceivably help the Steelers in the rushing department. He’s capable of rushing for over a thousand yards, although one has to wonder why Tampa has not used him more. On the flip side, he could be past his prime too. So yes, it’s a risk. Risks, though, can pay huge dividends. Jerome Bettis was going downhill with the Rams; then he found a new home, and it jump-started his career. It’s possible the same thing could happen here. Also, in three postseason games, Fournette had four touchdowns and three of them against the Steelers. Why not sign the guy who knocked you out of the playoffs. Plus, they could sign him for a bargain as well.
Will the Steelers sign any of these players? Only time will tell. It seems all but certain James Conner will not or at least should not return to the Steelers in 2021. The Steelers need to make drastic changes to their running game. Either through the draft or a free agent, they will need to get someone that can get back to rushing 80 to 100 yards a game. How they solve the problem, though, is anyone’s guess.