The Pittsburgh Steelers need to take a step forward on offense if they hope to make any kind of real noise in the AFC playoff picture in 2025 — or in the years to come. Acquiring DK Metcalf from the Seattle Seahawks was a big step toward laying that new foundation, and the Steelers hoped they took another one with the work they did in this year's NFL Draft.
On paper, it was easy to be optimistic. Iowa running back Kaleb Johnson was among the most dynamic playmakers in college football last season, and while QB Will Howard fell to the sixth round for a reason, you can talk yourself into a national champion who's made big throws in big spots against great defenses. For a team with question marks all over its offensive backfield, it seemed like a smart use of resources.
Eventually, though, all that potential has to be converted into production. And now that Johnson and Howard have actually taken the field, some of the bloom has come off the rose a bit
Steelers come to rude awakening with Will Howard, Kaleb Johnson
Steelers fans are still coming to grips with the learning curve that may await Howard, who has to go from an Ohio State offense in which he spent almost all of his time in the shotgun to an Arthur Smith scheme that will make him turn his back to the defense regularly and make drops with timing. Fair enough: So Howard won't be ready to take over in Week 1; it's not like anyone was expecting a sixth-rounder to be a short-term play anyway.
Johnson, though, is a different story. The former Hawkeye appeared ticketed as the heir apparent to Najee Harris as soon as he was drafted in the second round, a plug-and-play starter alongside Jaylen Warren.
That may be getting a little ahead of ourselves, though. As Johnson himself recently told Penn Live:
“Pass blocking that’s my main thing. That’s what I want to work on. I’m going to work on it every day. After practice, just going over there with the bag right there and hitting it with Coach Faulkner. Just learning, and learning from Warren, too, because he’s one of the best dudes in the league right now. I told him let’s do it. Let’s work after every practice and do it. He’s with it, and I’m down to go."
As any coach at any level will tell you, pass protection is the easiest way for a running back to earn (or lose) playing time. Johnson wasn't asked to do a ton of it in a retrograde Iowa offense; asking him to go from toting the rock 25 times a week to the nuances of NFL protection schemes is asking a lot, and there's no telling how long it will take him to wrap his arms around all of his new responsibilities.
It's important not to overreact here. It's still May, after all, and Howard and Johnson are both still just trying to learn the playbook and adjust to life in the NFL; we're still months away from either of them playing in their first game. But if Steelers fans were hoping that this duo could immediately transform a previously moribund offense, well, we might need to adjust our expectations a bit.