With Jaylen Warren knowing the Steelers have many carries to replace, he has taken a different approach during this offseason. After parting with Najee Harris in free agency, they will have to make up for over 250 carries per season. Although they drafted Kaleb Johnson in the third round, the veteran knows the opportunity is there in front of him.
“I approached this offseason differently”, Jaylen Warren said, via Dale Lolley [writing for the Steelers’ website](https://www.steelers.com/news/steelers-5-for-friday-jaylen-warren-ready-shoulder-load). He added, “I did a lot more things for longevity-wise, instead of my old-school training like just getting the cleats on and running 30 hills. I had to adapt. This game is about longevity. And like they say, the best ability is availability”.
Warren is referring to longevity not just in terms of career span but within a season, or within a game. Although he has been one of the more efficient running backs in the NFL per carry, his carry load is not overwhelmingly substantial. And that is equally true whether you look at a full season or at individual games.
For his career, Jaylen Warren has 346 carries over three seasons, across 48 games. In no season has he recorded 150 or more carries, posting a high of 149 in 2023. What’s more, he has never rushed more than 15 times in a single game. Out of 48 career games, he has recorded double-digit carries all of 12 times. That is just one-fourth of his games, for those math-deficient readers.
Warren has two 100-yard rushing games on his resume, one of which took just nine carries. That was in 2023 when he broke off a 74-yard touchdown run—a game that the Steelers lost. Najee Harris carried 12 times in that game for 35 yards. The offense didn’t even turn the ball over, but they just couldn’t do anything, scoring 10 points.
But Warren understands that, this year, it will be up to him first and foremost to be the one to do something. While Kaleb Johnson offers promise, we don’t know yet what role he will earn. Perhaps in the future, [even by October](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/05/beat-writer-can-see-rb-kaleb-johnson-taking-over-starting-role-by-october/), he will earn the lion’s share of carries.
But either way, there figures to be an increased role for Jaylen Warren. After all, Najee Harris didn’t just averaged 319 touches per season with the Steelers. He also recorded nearly 3,000 snaps, even if his workload decreased as Warren’s increased. Even last season, he logged 569 snaps, and I don’t see Johnson earning that many.
Asked if he felt prepared to take on a bigger role, Warren said, “No doubt about it, and that’s the way I’m training”. He may or may not be training _harder_, but he is training in a way that is different, that he believes better suits a higher volume of work over a longer period of time. Up to this point in his career, he had to prioritize maximizing his efficiency with every opportunity. Now, going into Year 4, he is taking a bigger-picture approach.