For the first time in a number of years, the Pittsburgh Steelers are threatening to use an honest-to-goodness running back platoon that is out of design rather than necessity. The last time that they had running backs meaningfully split carries was just before Le’Veon Bell, with Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer, neither seemingly good enough to be the full-time starter, sharing the workload.
In 2019, the Steelers have two young running backs whom they saw start games and succeed. Those would be third-year James Conner, who was the primary starter and earned a Pro Bowl nod for his performance, and second-year Jaylen Samuels, who was at risk of not even making the team, but slowly built up his role over the course of the year to the point that he was the back they felt comfortable starting when Conner was injured.