Without Jaylen Warren, the Steelers saw a career-best performance from Kenneth Gainwell in their win over the Vikings in Dublin. A player Pittsburgh deemed chronically underused in his career, they believe in him they have some untapped potential. And former Memphis teammate and current Steelers teammate Calvin Austin III certainly agrees.
Speaking to Gerry Dulac on 102.5 WDVE last night, Austin talked up his former college teammate. Kenneth Gainwell saw a career-high 25 touches against the Vikings, including 19 rushes for 99 yards. He also caught six passes for 36 yards, scoring two total touchdowns. It marked both his first two-touchdown game in the NFL and his first 100-yard game for scrimmage yards. For those skilled at math, you might have also realized he came up just one yard shy of a 100-yard rushing game.
“I just knew the type of player Kenny was, and I was like, ‘We’re gonna be good’, because Kenny’s a baller'”, Austin said, referring to Warren’s absence against the Vikings. “That’s a good game for him, but he’s still capable of so much more. Even on some of the runs he had, he was mad that he had gotten tackled. Even after he broke a lot of tackles, he was upset”.
A 2021 fifth-round pick, Kenneth Gainwell spent his first four NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Although he only spent one season behind Saquon Barkley, he previously played behind 1,000-yard runners Miles Sanders and D’Andre Swift. It’s no great surprise that he struggled to carve out a significant role in the Eagles’ offense, nor why he has greater visibility with the Steelers.
“I still think the NFL world hasn’t seen what Kenny is really capable of”, Austin added. “He’s one of the best football players that I’ve played with. It was just very cool to see him have that moment, and he’s gonna be a big component of us winning down the line”.
Of course, that was just one game, and it’s difficult to extrapolate what that means for the future. And that goes not just for his playing time, but also his execution. Gainwell recorded a successful carry on something like 75 percent of his runs against the Vikings—that’s rare.
For the first two games, Gainwell’s performance led fans to question why the Steelers were giving him so many touches. Over the past two games, of course, he has started to shift attitudes, but the jury remains out.
The Steelers ultimately hope to have a three-headed monster at running back with Warren, Gainwell, and rookie Kaleb Johnson. They started to get Johnson involved at the end of the last game, but what plans have they assembled during the bye week? Pittsburgh continues to talk Gainwell up, including HC Mike Tomlin during his Tuesday press conference. But as they say, ball don’t lie, so we’ll find out more on Sunday.
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