The Steelers have a dire need of a running back who can create plays on his own.
If there's any hope for a balanced offense going into the final year(s) of Ben Roethlisberger and into the first years of his successor(s), it's in Kevin Colbert making a concerted effort to find a running back who can make plays on his own and create extra yardage independent of his offensive line.
That's because that player isn't on the roster right now.
According to Pro Football Focus, James Conner averaged just 2.87 yards after contact per attempt, and Benny Snell averaged 2.44 yards after contact per attempt. From the 63 running backs who had at least 75 rushing attempts, Conner ranked 33rd in that category and Snell ranked 55th.
When the debate rages about whether the Steelers should prioritize drafting offensive linemen or running backs with their earliest picks in the 2021 NFL Draft, this is a key factor they have to consider. Building a younger and better offensive line that can lift the Steelers from ranking last in rushing offense is vital, but having a better running back is just as important.
Even when the Steelers' offensive line created opportunities for Conner, Snell and Anthony McFarland to gain significant yards, the Steelers were often left with their running backs taking only what the offensive line provided.
Here's Conner rushing against the Browns in the regular season finale. Watch how he takes on Mack Wilson at the point of attack. Although he breaks the tackle, Wilson does enough to impede Conner and stop the play:
Wilson is not that good of a tackler with nine missed tackles on the season of the 54 chances he had to make a tackle. That's more than 16 percent of those opportunities resulting in missed tackles.
The Steelers need running backs who can win against tacklers that bad. When they had Le'Veon Bell, that wasn't nearly as much an issue. His being selected in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft was the last time the Steelers selected a running back in the top two rounds.
Conner was drafted in the third round, Snell the fourth, and McFarland the fifth. Talented running backs can come from later rounds and flourish in offenses, but the last three fliers taken on the position haven't worked for the Steelers and getting a player in the early rounds would give them a better chance at finding the team's next primary rusher.
Watch how Conner gets an isolated look against the Jaguars' Joe Schobert. Schobert finished the season with ten missed tackles on rushing plays, the sixth-most of any defensive player in the NFL. Conner had a good deal of space to either make Schobert miss or build momentum to run through him, but neither happened:
And he wasn't alone with losing those plays against Schobert.
Here's Snell in a similar situation during the same game. Snell's a power back that should live for contact and find a way to power through the hole and beat Schobert. Instead, Snell opts to run away from the hole and is tackled for no gain:
In addition to making defenders miss at the point of attack, running backs need to be able to make smart decisions with the ball to avoid contact where necessary.
Snell didn't display much talent in that area either.
Here's another example of him getting isolated with a poor tackling linebacker and losing in the hole. Typically the offensive line looks to win their matchups to give one-on-one opportunities for running backs to win in the hole, and preferably against players they should beat.
Snell got isolated against Josh Bynes of the Bengals, who like Schobert, also missed ten tackles on rushing plays. The Steelers blocked the Bengals well enough to force Bynes to have to cover two different gaps against Snell. This put Snell at an advantage to choose which hole to beat Bynes, but he chose the wrong hole and was tackled for loss:
The Steelers need running backs who win more often in those opportunities.
Even if the Steelers fix their offensive line woes, it would help to have better running backs to capitalize on the opportunities they create. They have Snell, McFarland and Jaylen Samuels under contract moving forward, while Conner is set to hit free agency.
Whether it's drafting a running back or finding a new option in free agency, the Steelers need to add to a running back room a player who creates on his own and makes more yards out of those opportunities.
