With Pittsburgh Steelers running back James Conner having been confirmed as testing positive for Covid-19, he will now be required to sit out the team’s scheduled Tuesday game against the Baltimore Ravens. Running back Jaylen Samuels has also been ruled out, limiting the team’s options.
While the Steelers figure to head into the game with Benny Snell, rookie Anthony McFarland, and practice squad member Wendell Smallwood to man the position, it begs the question: will we see more of the team’s 01 and 00 personnel sets to accommodate for the loss of their lead back?
Remarks about the extent to which the team has run from these four- and five-receiver packages has been somewhat exaggerated by media outlets who do not actually chart snaps to determine how often it is actually used—notably, they ran just one snap out of 01 against the Cincinnati Bengals, for example—but it cannot be denied that it has become an effective weapon recently.