The running back room for the Pittsburgh Steelers is now one less player as the Steelers announced the release of veteran Jonathan Ward Thursday afternoon.
Ward appeared in four games last season for the Steelers, carrying the football five times for 22 yards, appearing in games against the Dallas Cowboys, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Jets and New York Giants.
In those four games, Ward saw 10 snaps offensively and played 59 snaps on special teams.
Ward was with the Steelers since last May, signing a one-year deal with the Steelers after earning a spot during rookie minicamp, [a story he told during a recent appearance](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/06/long-road-leads-rb-jonathan-ward-to-pittsburgh/) on the Christian Kuntz Podcast this summer.
He played just 11 snaps in the preseason offensively but showed some burst with the football in his hands as a runner. Ward rushed for 26 yards on six carries in the preseason opener against the Texans, and then didn’t record a touch in the second preseason game against the Buffalo Bills. He closed out the preseason with just one carry for 3 yards against the Detroit Lions.
Though he didn’t do enough to make the 53-man roster out of training camp, Ward showed enough to stick around, and then bounced back and forth between the practice squad and the active roster early in the season before being signed to the 53-man roster in late October.
Ward was released just over a week later and was re-signed to the practice squad, where he remained for the rest of the 2024 season, leading to him [signing a Reserve/Futures contract](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/01/report-jonathan-ward-signing-futures-deal-with-steelers/) with the franchise on January 20.
Since then, the Steelers have added veteran Kenneth Gainwell in free agency, and drafted running back Kaleb Johnson in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft, shoring up the running back room, putting Ward future down the depth chart, which ultimately led to his release Thursday afternoon.