Benny Snell is missing one key trait that makes him expendable

The Benny Snell experiment in Pittsburgh has not worked. Here’s why the lack of one critical trait makes the Steelers backup running back expendable.

There are a lot of young Pittsburgh Steelers offensive players that I have been impressed with this summer. Benny Snell is not one of them. In his fourth NFL season, the former fourth-round pick looks like the same player we saw in his first three years — one who has been rather unspectacular.

Initially, it seemed like a large portion of the fan base was in support of the Snell selection in the 2019 NFL Draft. However, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pick. My judgment wouldn’t fail me.

In his first three NFL seasons, Snell has been able to churn his legs for just 3.5 yards per carry and has chipped in just 97 receiving yards on 22 targets in his career, via Pro Football Reference. Last season was his worst performance to date, in addition to finishing with just a 2.7 yards per carry average, Snell was among the bottom seven qualifying running backs in the NFL in every efficiency measure, according to Football Outsiders.

This isn’t for a lack of grit or phsycality on Snell’s part. In fact, it’s been rather easy to point out his area of weakness from the gate: Benny Snell simply lacks speed.

This statement is far less of an opinion at this point than it is a fact. At the NFL Combine in 2019, Snell no doubt made talent evaluators cringe as he put up a 4.66 40-yard dash on the stopwatch. It’s hard to argue that we see a faster player on the field. Regarding his Steelers teammates, he’s well behind the race when it comes to speed at the RB position.

Even the next-slowest running back on the team (by testing numbers, at least), Jaylen Warren still looks like he has a gear that Benny Snell doesn’t possess. Oftentimes, Snell makes it look like a big enough challenge to get back to the line of scrimmage. According to MockDraftable’s database dating back to 1999, Snell is in just the 17th percentile in terms of his speed at the running back position.

Speed kills, and Steelers RB Benny Snell doesn’t have it

There’s a time to use analytics and there’s a time to go with your gut. This was one of those times the Steelers should have been more open to valuing testing numbers. Though he had good size for the RB position coming out of college (5’10”, 224 pounds), he simply wasn’t an NFL-caliber athlete.

In all honestly, nobody should be surprised by what we have seen from him in his first three seasons. He plays exactly like the player we saw at Kentucky. The only difference is his severe lack of speed is more evident now that he’s playing against NFL athletes.

When it comes to evaluating the running backs on the roster, the Steelers need to start thinking of Snell as an expendable player. For some reason or another, Mike Tomlin loves ‘Benny Snell Football,’ but I don’t know what there is to get excited about. On special teams, Snell is serviceable, but he offers next to nothing on offense.

On the other hand, the Steelers have a pair of young running backs who have been much better at training camp in Anthony McFarland and Jaylen Warren. These two players had exceptional preseason performances against the Seahawks and both have much more to offer as runners, thanks to McFarland’s speed and Warren’s well-balanced skill set.

While I’ve never doubted Snell’s toughness or ability to shed arm tackles, that will only get you so far. Without any sort of extra gear as a running back, I think the Pittsburgh Steelers need to consider moving on from him in favor of players who hold more value on offense.