4 Steelers stars who will be wasted in Arthur Smith's offense

1. Jaylen Warren, RB

Now we get to the most obvious candidate to be wasted in the Steelers offense. Jaylen Warren, at many points throughout the 2023 campaign, was essentially the meme of a Lamborghini sitting under the stand-up garage in a trailer park. He showed immense flashes throughout the season and seemed to simply be a more effective running back than former first-round pick Najee Harris.

That, of course, has never stopped Arthur Smith, especially of late with the Falcons, from giving the bigger, more bruising runner almost as many opportunities if not more.

Atlanta used a Top 10 pick on former Texas running back Bijan Robinson, who profiled to being a do-it-all playmaker in the Falcons offense immediately. And when he got he opportunities, he was. He led the team with 976 rushing yards and a 4.6 yards per carry average while also catching 58 passes for 487 yards. He also totaled eight touchdowns on the year.

But the fact of the matter is that he was simply under-used. There was no reason for Tyler Allgeier to get 186 carries on the season to Robinson's 214, especially when Robinson averaged 0.9 yards per carry more than his backfield mate. Furthermore, Smith failed to maximize what Robinson can be in the passing game, once again, by not looking to get him more targets down the field.

Warren is already in danger of falling into that same category. He's far more effective than Harris on a per-touch basis and adds more explosiveness to the offense too. Smith has long shown an affinity for the more traditional, bigger running back, which is Harris for the Steelers. That likely means that Steelers fans will once again have to watch an OC not let Jaylen Warren live up to his potential through no fault of his own.