5 Steelers who are shooting up the depth chart

Steelers need to give Jaylen Warren more opportunities

This one is a harder one to wrap my head around, but by all accounts, Jaylen Warren has impressed this offseason. He was a camp darling a year ago and became the core backup to Najee Harris last season. While there isn’t a conventional depth chart battle, Warren has seemingly moved up some.

It started early in camp and after contact was allowed. The Steelers quickly stopped having defenses tackle both Harris and Warren akin to how they don’t allow the quarterbacks to get hit. This is to prevent injuries, but the fact that Warren was put into that category signifies that he is expected to be a significant contributor this season. No other running back was given that treatment.

His string of solid preseason games have furthered this idea. There seems to be an active debate as to who should be the true starter for this team. In reality, that seems silly, as the Steelers are set to utilize their first-ever committee backfield under the Tomlin era. Harris will be the power back and game manager while Warren will be the third down back and hurry-up offense option (for the most part, both will occasionally see snaps in this role).

That being said, I see this as Warren moving up the depth chart. He has gone from a pure backup to a bell cow now to likely seeing a close to even snap count between him and Harris. While he will still be shown as the second running back on the depth chart, I view him as a co-starter given the developments that have been made this offseason.