While the Pittsburgh Steelers may have originally signed Will Johnson as a free agent with an eye toward making him a fullback, the reality is that he had already begun to shift substantially away from that role in 2014 after just two seasons. With the emergence of Roosevelt Nix in 2015, his role as a fullback had become moot.
But that is what he was intended to be initially—largely, anyway. His entrance into the league coincided with the Steelers’ hiring of Todd Haley to be their offensive coordinator, and with it, a renewed interest in the concept of a fullback.