It's been well over a decade since Mike Tomlin made his famous (or infamous) statement in 2007 about running Willie Parker until the wheels came off. But it's a statement that is continually thrown back in Tomlin's face, even though he hasn't always been a guy who runs the wheels off his backs.
Wait, didn't we see Le'Veon Bell run heavily in his five seasons with the Steelers?
Sure. But Bell was the outlier, not the norm.
In fact, if you look back at Tomlin's 12 seasons as the Steelers' head coach, you'll see his lead back has averaged 251 carries per season in that span, an average of 15.7 per game. And that's with the lead runner playing an average of just over 14 games per season.
The backups? They've averaged 85.5 carries per season in Tomlin's tenure, a number skewed by Bell's backups. For example, Jonathan Dwyer got just 49 carries in 2013, while James Conner had only 32 in 2017.
In most cases, the Steelers' No. 2 running back has been right around 100 carries. That was true even in the season of Tomlin's famous quote regarding Parker. Sure, Parker had 321 carries in 15 games that season, an average of 21.4 per game. But his backup, Najeh Davenport, had 107 rushing attempts that season, as the Steelers ran the ball 511 times that year.
The days of running the ball 511 times are largely in the past in the NFL. While seven teams ran the ball at least 485 times in 2007 -- the Steelers' 511 rushes were third in the league that year -- just two teams surpassed that number last season, the Ravens and Seahawks.
The Steelers, meanwhile, had just 345 carries as a team. Considering Parker had 321 in 2007, Rashard Mendenhall had 324 in 2010 and Bell had 321 in 2017, it was completely out of character for the Steelers.
Part of the reason for that was Bell's decision to sit out last season, as the Steelers threw the ball 67 percent of the time.
Without Bell, a true workhorse back, the Steelers' running back depth chart was Conner, rookie Jaylen Samuels and veteran Stevan Ridley.
And while Conner earned a Pro Bowl trip in his first season as a starter, rushing for 973 yards and 12 touchdowns in 13 games, Samuels was largely unused as a runner until late in the season after Conner was injured and Ridley proved to be a true third-string back.
The Steelers allowed Ridley's contract to run out without re-signing him and added Benny Snell Jr. in the fourth round of the draft, perhaps changing the dynamic of their running back group.
While Conner is the unquestioned starter, Snell gives the Steelers a player who is comfortable being a feature back, something Samuels, who is more of a pass catcher, has never done. When he rushed for 142 yards on 19 carries in a win over the Patriots late last season with Conner out with an ankle injury, it marked the first 100-yard game of Samuels' career at any level, including high school.
While the Steelers like what they have in Conner, it seems they have a lot of respect for what Snell brings to the table.
"Benny Snell is a guy that really stands out (as) a guy that was really a central figure in the culture change in terms of what went on at Kentucky, competing and winning and what he was able to do down there," Mike Tomlin said. "We had a great deal of respect not only for his talents but his body of work over the course of three years down there in Kentucky that speaks to that football, that grit element."
It's not like the Steelers truly overworked Conner last season. After all, he had 215 carries in 13 games, an average of 16.5 per game.
But with the turnover in their receiving corps this offseason, the team might want to find a little more balance moving forward. And in the 5-foot-10, 224-pound Snell, they feel they have a player whose style is very similar to Conner's.
Snell rushed for 1,000 yards in each of his three seasons against SEC competition. And he did it despite Kentucky not being a football powerhouse -- at least not until 2018.
"He's got a little natural run skill to his game. Where he sees things, he's really good on the second level finding and creating space," Kevin Colbert said.
New running backs coach Eddie Faulkner, who coached Samuels at North Carolina State, doesn't care how things work out or how the carries are distributed. He just wants results.
"I'm a believer in getting our best players on the field," Faulkner said. "Sometimes, that requires a guy to take more carries than not, other times there are guys (with) certain skill sets that fit better to a particular play for a scheme we are trying to run. We'll figure out those things as we continue to build our team. I'm just a believer of getting the best players on the field."
The Steelers don't have a set plan for their backs heading into their rookie minicamp on Friday when they'll get their first look at Snell in the black-and-gold.
But if things play out as they have in previous non-Bell years, Conner can look to get 75 percent of the carries, with somebody else getting the other 25 percent.
Snell wants to be that player, especially if it means keeping Conner available late in the season.
"I’m a different player than James," Snell said. "He’s done an amazing job filling in the spot and being that guy. I’m very impressed with how he was in college and how he overcame things, and I’m ready to work with him. I’m excited."
LOLLEY'S VIEW
I was of the thought that Tomlin didn't use his backup running backs much, as well. But the numbers say otherwise.
Now, certainly some of those numbers wracked up by the backups was after an injury to the starter, but even the year Blount walked off the field in Nashville, he had 65 carries in 11 games.
But the last few years, the No. 2 back hasn't gotten a lot of playing time, in part because they've been rookies -- Conner in 2017, Samuels in 2018.
Snell is considered a pretty good pass protector, so that reason for not playing him -- which was the case for Conner and Samuels -- will be out the window.
I would expect Snell to beat out Samuels for the No. 2 spot. And remember, Conner already is heading into the third year of his four-year rookie contract.
