Kaleb Johnson was surrounded by much hype at the beginning of training camp. Fast forward to Week 3, and we’re talking about Johnson potentially being inactive against the New England Patriots. That’s a thought Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo ponders on the North Shore Drive podcast on Tuesday.
“I’ll be surprised if he gets a helmet,” Fittipaldo said. “If you think about it, if you’re not gonna have him on kickoff return, what else is he gonna do for you? You’re not playing him on offense, I’d have to look if he’s on kick coverage or punt coverage or anything like that, but you could find somebody else to do that. Given injuries, they might need bodies in certain areas like the defensive line. You can get by with two running backs. And you can sit Kaleb Johnson and maybe make an example out of him.”
If you’ve been living under a rock, Johnson made a massive mistake last week. He allowed a live ball on a kickoff to roll into the end zone. The Seahawks recovered it for a touchdown. It gave them a 10-point lead at the time, a hole the Steelers never escaped. After the mistake, Tomlin replaced Johnson with Jaylen Warren. On Tuesday, Tomlin clarified that Johnson wouldn’t be returning kicks moving forward.
It makes sense. You can’t make mistakes like the one Kaleb Johnson made, and there’s got to be a consequence for that. Some argue that Johnson shouldn’t have been returning kicks, but there lies the conundrum that the Steelers are in.
Offensively, Johnson has had no role so far. He had one rush in each of the first two games, which combined for a loss of one yard. Pittsburgh has relied on Warren and Kenneth Gainwell in the running game, and putting Johnson on the return team may have just been a way to get him on the field.
Now that opportunity has vanished. The Steelers are obviously not going to let go of their third-round pick this year. However, where do they go moving forward with him? He’s already not involved in the offense, and by taking him off the return team, he’s not going to be on the field at all. That’s not a position you want to be in with a third-round pick just three weeks into the year.
However, it could make sense to elevate somebody like Trey Sermon.
With Mike Tomlin taking Kaleb Johnson off kickoffs for now, and with the rookie only having just four offensive snaps so far, it does make you wonder if we might see Trey Sermon elevated from the practice squad this week and then getting Johnson's gameday helmet vs Patriots.…
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) September 16, 2025
Whatever the Steelers decide to do, they’re not in an enviable position. In just a month, the hype train on Kaleb Johnson has derailed. We went from talking about him as a breakout candidate in training camp to debating whether he should even get a helmet for Week 3. Johnson has a lot of football in front of him, but it’s not the start to his career he’d hoped for.
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