3 reasons Steelers will regret letting James Conner walk

Conner is going to thrive in Arizona in 2021

Conner is going to be running behind a better offensive line, playing with a better quarterback(at the current moment), and more importantly, playing for his former running backs coach James Saxon.

The worst personnel move the Steelers have made in the last 5 seasons, aside from hiring Randy Fichtner as their offensive coordinator, is letting James Saxon walk. Saxon was our running backs coach from 2014-2018. He was instrumental to the development of Le’Veon Bell and in 20 seasons has had 15 different running backs make the Pro-Bowl. All of Bell’s Pro-Bowl and All-Pro seasons came under Saxon, while Conner’s loan Pro-Bowl appearance was in Saxon’s final year as the Steelers RB coach.

The Steelers probably let him walk because, as a team, the Pittsburgh was 31st in rushing in 2018. Disregarding the fact, that they were near the bottom of the league in attempts, and they had a running back make a pro bowl for the 4th consecutive year with Saxon as the coach. With the weapons in that offense, and Chase Edmunds as the perfect compliment, Conner will more than likely win the starting running back position at some point. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has the best season of his career in 2021. Conner is all but guaranteed to put up better numbers in 2021 than whoever the Steelers draft to replace him as long as he stays mostly healthy.

Considering the fact the Steelers could’ve probably signed him on a cheap short-term deal, we are going to look pretty bad for letting a player of his caliber walk.