The Steelers losing Kenneth Gainwell and signing Rico Dowdle is a big deal—particularly for Jaylen Warren and his usage. Replacing a versatile back with more of a straight-ahead runner returns Warren to familiar territory—for the better, I’d argue. Last year, the Steelers leaned heavily into Gainwell’s receiving ability, to the deprivation of Warren’s talents.
Mind you, both Gainwell and Dowdle are pending unrestricted free agents, so neither have officially signed anywhere. Gainwell is reportedly agreed to terms on a two-year, $14 million contract, with the Steelers agreeing with Dowdle on a similar, slightly cheaper contract. They already have Jaylen Warren tied up for the next two years and intend to get good usage out of him.
To that end, shifting from Gainwell to Dowdle is actually doing Jaylen Warren a favor. It will be more similar to the paring he had in his first three seasons, when his complement was Najee Harris. In that scheme, it was Warren who functioned as the passing-downs back, and he thrived in that role. At times, the Steelers arguably disadvantaged themselves last season by leaning so heavily into Gainwell.
For his career, Jaylen Warren has 167 receptions on 199 targets for 1,127 yards with 2 touchdowns. Despite Gainwell’s heavy usage in this area, he still caught 40 passes in 2025 on 45 targets for 333 yards. That included a 65-yard catch-and-run, which QB Aaron Rodgers called one of the most impressive plays he’d ever seen.
last season, Jaylen Warren recorded a career-high 1,291 yards from scrimmage with 8 yards. This is almost hard to remember given how much attention shifted to Kenneth Gainwell and his breakout year. Even though his teammates voted him MVP, Warren still outproduced him, ultimately.
Warren also proved that he could shoulder the load, a question he faced after working with Najee Harris. But with Rico Dowdle, he won’t have to. Dowdle is coming of consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons, in two different cities. I don’t know that he’ll see north of 200 carries in Pittsburgh, but the Steelers know they can give him that workload. And he has had roughly a 50-percent run success rate over that time, as well.
Make no mistake, the Steelers losing Kenneth Gainwell doesn’t make them better. But Jaylen Warren was already doing some of the things Gainwell did for them last year. He might not have the same receiver skills as Gainwell, but he is just as dynamic after the catch. And he is a capable pass protector as well.
This is, then, new old territory for Warren, who played the majority of his snaps on run downs last year. And, ideally, the Steelers won’t have an offense that relies so heavily on running backs as receivers. Already, they are in the works in trading for WR Michael Pittman Jr. Surely, they will add at least one or two more receivers to the mix, and Pat Freiermuth can contribute more. It wasn’t so long ago that people were treating Warren the way they are Gainwell now. It’s time to remember he is that same player everybody was excited about at this time last year.
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