What can we get for KJ/ Steelers sign RB Travis Homer

Time for your bourbon break Kaboly.... buurrrupp....

 

Fat Koboly the Chicken Wing King, Steelers Apologist

 

If anyone knows about Kaleb Johnson it would be METALMAN_68 being an Iowa Hawkeyes fan who saw him first hand.

He will get a chance in camp I believe.

 

I agree with him here because Homer is a special teamer.

It's the Dowdle signing that shows the team doesn't really think anything of Johnson.

If they though Johnson was worth giving a snaps to, they wouldn't have signed a guy for more than they pay Warren.

Now they have two guys on the roster that they almost certainly intend to give 220+ carries to. We only had 407 rushing attempts last year. But the plan this year has to be to have the D get off the field on 3rd down so the O can have more plays (would have been interesting to hear ARII do the state of the team address this year).

FWIW, this is why I was only "meh" on the Dowdle signing. It means we'll again neglect Johnson whether it's deserved or not.

 

I hope so.

But the economics don't make sense for him to get a bunch of snaps IMO.

I think that means he'll have to look significantly better than the other two guys.

I guess the good news for RBs is that the guys you want to play in the regular season often don't get all that much work in preseason games. And the roster is set up for him to be a distant 3rd on the depth chart again (although I do think Gianwell was a pleasant surprise last year).

 

Is Kaleb Johnson a complete bust though?

3rd round rookie contract RB. Why drop his or give him away for nothing?

Unless they see that this was a huge mistake, i'm putting him on the practice squad at least to see if he can develop a bit before trading for a probable 7th rounder or release entirely for a cap hit. The RB position does get injured.


Here's another article.
Steelers just got new reason to move on from disappointing draft pick https://share.google/XfthzmpNoyK9w5s18

 

My guess is that he'll be on the roster and be a week to week decision on whether he gets a helmet.

If one of the top 2 guys gets hurt, he'll consistently get a helmet and have an opportunity to show if he's an NFL player or not.

 

Homer barely has any carries the last few years, he's likely just a ST signing.

 

Dowdle affects Warren, too. I think it will be a positive effect, pushing him back into the role he played so well before last season, but with a more even share of the carries.

 

There's plenty of 3rd round type RBs to pick from every year.

 

Agree strongly with this.

Either they have little / no confidence in Johnson. Or Dowdle is just the new pet project from the person leading the offense (much better than Patterson and more consistent than J Smith).

 

I don't think you do anything with Johnson, that would be the business concept of selling low. What can you get? Hopefully a fourth? More likely a fifth or sixth? For that I'd rather bring him to camp and see if he can show his college promise that made him a third rounder. If he produces anything maybe he pushes into the lineup and gets goal line and short yardage touches. If he shows more then maybe he gets some rotational work. Or maybe he has a good enough camp to bring trade value when another team gets hit by injury and can bring back more than he will today. He has no value and is on a cheap contract so it makes no sense to sell now.

 

We could do worse at RB3

 

This is true. Going into last season there was a never RB1 and a change of pace back ahead of KJ. Going into this year there are two RB1s ahead of him. Even if you dismiss Homer as a Killebrew / Skowronek guy (ST only with no expected contribution at a position) there is still a steeper hill to climb than he had last year.

 

Also he was thought of as a great blitz pick up guy and a good pass catcher ..https://www.nfl.com/prospects/travis-homer/3200484f-4d65-5558-456b-7b9fa9f97090

I think he has kicked KJ off the 53 already so what value does he have to the Team ?

He offers a bit of a different skill set than our other 2 RBS and is for sure different than KJ..Who did AR Love Gainwell and the back they just signed is very similar in style and stature..

 

That is how he was regarded out of college. He has been in the league for seven years, so that may be out of date. Homer has barely played on offense the last three seasons. In those three years with the Bears, he ran the ball only seven time and caught only three passes. He got one touch on offense all of 2025.

 

I'd be fine with this on a cheap one or two year deal. Najee would be a good guy to come in as a backup off the bench if someone gets hurt. He's at least OK at everything.

But I can't imagine that he'd come back here if he had an option anywhere else in the NFL.

Didn't he say something about how Tomlin said he saw him like a son and his advice for Najee was to leave? My guess is that Tomlin is the only person in the FO that he still liked. And he's gone.

And we already have two guys who are going to expect to have somewhere close to 220 rushes each. So there wouldn't be any work for him unless someone got hurt.

IMO, best call for someone like Najee is to remain unsigned until some RB has a significant injury. Probably in the preseason sometime.

 

so we're trading KJ and bringing back Najee
Crowning Homer King

Dowdle do it

 

Does he have no work because he couldn't do it ? I am just saying what I see ..AR loved Gainwell and Homer looks like a clone ..IMO AR and MM are pulling the strings on the types of guys they want .. I am not concerned if another Team used him or not , but when he was used how did he do ?? MM doesn't like to keep ST only guys so IMO they plan to use Homer on outside runs and in some passing situations..

I find it telling how much AR Loved Gainwell and now they sign a RB that is basically a clone with low mileage..When I watch the him on Offence his best runs outside zone and that straight flat pass both plays MM Loves to run and KG ran well also...

Actually Homer will be the fastest and have the highest Athletic score of all the RBS on the Team right now..

 

Yeah, I think Najee kinda saw some of the dysfunction within the organization... I remember that he called for more "discipline and structure" within the building and more "in-house rules". This is something that I hope improves with McCarthy on board and Tomlin out of coaching. This seemed like an area of coaching where Tomlin never developed. He was able to rely on "in-house" structure based on the teams he had for the first half of his coaching tenure. He wasn't able to become that 'structure' guy later, and wasn't able to replicate the "in house" culture with his roster construction later in his career.

I was basically making the comment based off the fact that I think Dowdle and Warren are both just superior backs to Najee, hence the RB3 comment. If he wants to come back here in that role, I'd be for it.... but I also understand that he is likely looking to get some workload so he can get one last good contract. Being the RB3 in Pittsburgh isn't that. I'd honestly prefer we draft someone day 3 to compete with Johnson and Homer. The job will come down to either one of the backs showing promise as a runner (and eventual starter/tandem guy) or special teams.

 

Well, it makes sense that they bring in this type of player to compete. He has 90 career carries and 65 career targets in the passing game. He's a true "3rd down back" and if he makes the team it will be to come in as the 3rd down back if one of our backs misses a game and play ST's. Not a terrible role/skillset to have if he wants to make the squad. It will come down to how he performs in camp.

 

If he didn’t learn anything last year on the 53 exactly why waste a spot on the PS