The Pittsburgh Steelers selected running back Kaleb Johnson in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Johnson played college football at Iowa and is now part of an RB room that includes veterans Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell.
Najee Harris left in free agency and signed with the Los Angeles Chargers, so Johnson was expected to have some sort of role this year.
However, Week 2 was not a good one for Johnson. The rookie was back to return a kickoff, missed the ball and allowed it to go into the end zone.
In turn, it was picked up by the Seattle Seahawks and resulted in a Seattle touchdown.
It was a puzzling mistake by Johnson, who seemed to think the ball was going to roll out of the end zone or that it was going to be blown dead.
On Tuesday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin left no secrets about Johnson returning kickoffs going forward.
"Probably not in the short term," Tomlin said, via Christopher Carter of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "I'm certainly going to give him an opportunity to work his way back from that error. I believe in his talent, he's a hard worker. But he has to do that, he has to display that and earn himself back to being into a position to participate."
So far this year, Johnson has just two carries for minus-1 yard, and he has returned eight kickoffs for a total of 190 yards.
But, for now, Tomlin has no plans of having Johnson return kickoffs.
Johnson's error came early in the fourth quarter, extending Seattle's lead to 10 on its way to a 31-17 win over Pittsburgh.
So, instead of the Steelers having the ball down three, the Seahawks scored a touchdown in a costly mistake by the rookie.
Tomlin added he "hasn't even begun to address" who will return kickoffs for the time being, but it won't be Johnson.
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