Two-year extension for Jaylen Warren

When you have 100+ more rush attempts you gain more yards per game.
Did you not notice the passing game this year is better than last?

 

Is the passing game really better?

2025: 195 ypg
2024: 192 ypg


The main reason we have less rushing attempts is because the run game is doo doo.

but I do agree the passing game is slightly better than last year. It’s not scaring anyone though. Hopefully DK and AR can put a few more games together to finish the season strong.

My point stands. This rushing attack is struggling.

 

They couldn't run it at all against the Ravens. The numbers against the Bears were inflated by Gainwell's long run on the fourth-down trick play. They didn't run it particularly well against the Bills, either. The Bears and Bills have terrible run defenses, too.

 

You would rather make excuses rather than stick to the facts. The team started Harris every game. They gave him more snaps. They gave him more touches. The relied on the better back, then moved on because he runs his mouth too much and he had take a lot of wear and tear in those four years. That led to pushing Warren into the lead role, where he offers less durability and cannot carry the same workload that Harris did in the past.

The most concerning part of all this is Warren's rushing numbers are getting worse in recent games. He averaged 3.8 yards per carry against the Bears, who have one of the league's worst run defenses. That dropped to 3.5 per carry against the Bills, another opponent with a lousy run defense. He managed only 13 yards on eight carries against the Ravens. He has had one play over 12 yards as a runner or receiver over those three games, the 38-yard touchdown reception on a badly-busted coverage against the Ravens.

For the Steelers to get into the playoffs, much less do anything there, Warren needs to turn that around, starting tonight. It can't just be the Dolphins' edge rushers teeing off on Rodgers all night.

 

The difference isn't that great. If anything, that should create more opportunities for the run game to be effective. Take last week as an example. Rodgers hit some big throws early. That should have created more room for Warren and Gainwell, but they still couldn't get going.

 

Did you watch the game? BAL basically committed its defense to all-out stopping the run sometimes playing up to 8 or 9 around the LOS. They were not going to let the Steelers run. They figured to take their chances against the passing game. The RBs had 9 rec. in the game. Gainwell with 4.5 yds/rec. And Warren with his TD catch & run. I'll take that as a substitute for a run.



But the bottom-line is that neither run nor pass will improve until this OL gets its act together. The Steelers need IOL in this coming draft.

 

agreed.

We were supposed to see a better run game with Warren because the outside zone scheme. It hasn’t happened yet and our best run scheme is the jumbo package which makes us pretty one dimensional.

I always told the ypc crew that Warren’s stat would drop if he got more touches. Half of it is because of obvious short yardage attempts but also because our run blocking has always been ass.

 

Agree on the IOL but just wanted to point out that Najee faved the same thing bs damn near every defense we faced. They always stacked the box and forced us to beat them with the pass. Funnyy enough, we were 6-2 vs Baltimore with Najee and he also had a game winning TD reception one game.

 

I watched Najee Harris run against fronts like that for years. Strong running teams find ways to at least get something on the ground even against teams playing them that way.

 

The Chargers did sign him and were giving him more touches than their first-round pick when he got hurt, but facts have not been your friend in this discussion.

 

IMO the biggest issue on offense is that we need to run more plays. If they're run plays, great! If they're pass plays, great! Stay on the field (and D needs to be better at getting off the field outside of just turnovers). Run more plays on offense.

Good news is that we have slight more ppg than last year. Without looking at stats, I think a lot of this is Rodgers being much better than our recent QBs in the red zone.

Total offensive success rates are also up a bit from the last few seasons: 2025 (42.76%), 2024 (40.06%), 2023 (41.11). This is total success rate.

Individually, here are our RBs success rates:

• Warren (2025): 53.5
• Gainwell (2025): 57.5

Last few years (RBs):

• Warren (2024): 40.0
• Najee (2024): 43.7
  
• Warren (2023): 49.7
• Najee (2023): 48.2

So it looks like run success rates are up pretty significantly this season vs. last season. My understanding is that > 50% success rate for running plays is generally though of as good.

Passing success%

• Rodgers (2025): 43.1
• Russ (2024): 43.6
• Kenny (2023): 40.3

Passing success rate slightly down from last year, but still much better than KP 2023.

Aside: This was the thing about KP, he had a pretty good success rate as a rookie 44%. It was actually really exciting IMO when he came in as a rookie. He started playing and the offense would get first downs. Then I think defenses realized that there was only one thing that he did well (back shoulder down the sideline). And after they took that away, he'd go to his other signature move of "spin to your blindside and get smoked by a DL".

 

All lies made up by the Steelers and the media

Lies lies lies

 

and most veteran QB’s are able to audible out of running plays when the box is stacked.

This is where I think the offense has improved with AR.

 

yeah.. he was a walk on with the Chargers.

 

Warren and Gainwell's first down rates are higher than Harris' from last year. Gainwell averages 1 first down in 3 carries, Warren, 1 in 4 carries. Zone blocking might be working but it's inconsistent.

 

Pretty clear that we've had veteran and young QBs changing plays at the line multiple times.

I think it was confirmed that they'd go to the line with 2 or 3 plays that the QB could check between depending on what they saw at the line.

I think there's some semantics here about whether or not that counts as an "audible".

 

Our run success rates are significantly higher this year vs last year with Najee.

I really think Najee is a good person. And he's a very versatile back who's pretty good at everything. And he was super durable for us (we got out at the perfect time on that one).

And he was a good player for us. Not great, but good. If the rest of the rebuild on offense wasn't mostly a failure, I think more people would look at him in a more positive light.

Letting him leave was the correct decision (even if he didn't have a massive injury immediately after he left).

He would probably have been pretty close to the ideal back in the 90s. But speed and big plays are much more important now than they were then.

 

Agreed. When I saw what Henderson did yesterday for NE I was jealous. And speed is probably the one reason why MIA can break this game open.

 

that’s an audible but we saw a ton of times when QB’s didn’t audible out of run plays when the defense stacked the box.

 

This from the guy who can't even admit that Harris was more durable during his four years as a Steeler than Warren has been this season. Harris never missed a start. Warren did. Instead of admitting that, you started going on about him being right in line with average backs in terms of durability or some such nonsense. It is the most basic fact in this entire discussion and you are the one who couldn't bring yourself to admit it.

Regarding this little tangent, you said nobody wanted Harris. That was factually incorrect. Once I demonstrated that you were factually wrong, you chose to move the goalposts. Please don't misrepresent my posts. Thank you.

 

People keep posting these so-called advanced stats, but without providing links. How do they measure run success rates? What is their process? Even with a link, I would find this sujective and dubious at best.

The broken tackle one earlier was similarly questionable. The broken tackle percentage statistics I found on a reputable site, profootballreference.com, had Harris's broken tackle rate last year higher than Warren's this year. I asked the poster who shared a different number to share the link, but he did not share. That tells me his numbers are nor reliable.

Warren is a good player for the Steelers, too. Not great, but good. So far, he is on pace to run for significantly fewer yards than Harris did in any of his four seasons in Pittsburgh, with an average per carry that is creeping down toward what Harris did last year. Even with one game missed and the lighter workload than Harris, Warren has had more trouble staying on the field and seems to be wearing down in recent games.

 

And also many times when they did.

Which I think means we can't conclude that QBs weren't allowed to.