While Jaylen Warren’s playing time is a weekly conversation, Arthur Smith considers it a good problem to have, along with Kenneth Gainwell. Coming off his second 100-yard, two-touchdown game of the year, Gainwell has also proven his value. But how do you balance the workload between the two, while trying to satisfy everybody?
For most of the season, the Steelers have seemed to use Warren primarily on first and second down. Gainwell has played on third down, in obvious passing situations, and in hurry-up. Obviously, the actual division hasn’t been that clean, but it reflects that general idea. On Thursday, Smith tried to articulate his philosophy about using them.
“Sometimes it’s how the start of the drive went,” he said via transcript from the Steelers’ media department, “and then when you get on the ball, sometimes a guy is in a rhythm and he ends up staying out there. But those guys are pretty interchangeable, which is rare to have when you have two guys with a little bit different skill set.”
Smith noted that Warren and Gainwell are both good on third down—even though Gainwell gets the third-down looks.
In past years, Jaylen Warren was the default target on 3rd-and-long plays, which I affectionately referred to in the Steelers Depot Discord as “3rd-and-Jaylens.” Kenneth Gainwell probably helped himself this past week, though, by converting a 3rd-and-Jaylen of his own.
“Sometimes it depends on how you want to attack third down. Sometimes you have to package things,” Arthur Smith added about the snap division between Warren and Gainwell. “You can call it by series, or…the personnel might dictate who’s out there…We talk about those situations every week. But the good problem to have is both those guys are really good players.”
Both Warren and Gainwell have a run success rate in the mid-50s. Warren has rushed for 536 yards on 123 attempts with 2 touchdowns. Gainwell has 244 yards on 61 attempts with 3 touchdowns. The latter also has two receiving touchdowns, both from this past Sunday, part of a career-best receiving effort.
In fact, Kenneth Gainwell eclipsed 200 receiving yards for a season for just the second time in his career. He is currently at 204 yards, while Warren is at 219 yards, so the Steelers are getting significant contributions in the passing game out of the backfield this year. Warren, though, has a far higher success rate on his receptions.
Earlier this year, the Steelers signed Jaylen Warren to an extension. I would guess that they plan to re-sign Kenneth Gainwell after this year, as well. Of course, they’re still hoping to continue to develop rookie Kaleb Johnson along the way.
Yet we still face the reality that the Steelers have one of the bottom-ranked rushing offenses. They rank 28th in carries, 29th in yards, 26th in scores, and 28th in yards per attempt. But that’s more a reflection on the offense as a whole and the overall commitment to the run game this year, rather than on what Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell have done.
Recommended for you