When the Steelers selected Le'Veon Bell in the second round of the 2013 draft, many in Pittsburgh were upset that the team passed over former Alabama running back Eddie Lacy to do so. After all, so many mock drafts that year had the Steelers selecting Lacy in the first round, and Pittsburgh wound up passing on him not just once, but twice, as Bell was selected in the second round.
Nobody is questioning that pick any longer. While Lacy rushed for 1,000 yards in his first season with Green Bay -- which selected him soon after the Steelers passed on him for the second time -- he has struggled with injury and weight issues since and now is a rotational back with the Seattle Seahawks.
Bell, meanwhile, has gone on to become one of the best players in the league, one who has earned All-Pro honors in two of the past three seasons. But that also has earned Bell, 26, a big contract -- or at least one he hopes will be.
For the second year in a row, the Steelers have placed the franchise tag on Bell, a status that will pay him $14.54 million in 2018. The Steelers would still like to sign Bell to a long-term contract, but negotiations have been slow and the team might not be able to afford Bell's asking price.
So the Steelers might look to find a future replacement in the draft, which will be held April 26 through 28.
Would the team look to do that in the first round? Possibly. And the Steelers have shown some interest in LSU's Derrius Guice. But with Bell earning as much money as he will this season, the Steelers likely won't use a first-round pick to add a running back who will only get table scraps.
And the Steelers have no intention of playing in 2018 without Bell. They aren't trading Bell's rights -- something they would need him to sign his tag to do -- and aren't interested in rescinding the tag.
"I would never remove anything from possibility. Is it a probability? No," Kevin Colbert said at the NFL meetings recently.
With James Conner, a third-round pick last year, and veterans Stevan Ridley and Fitzgerald Toussaint having re-signed this offseason, the team is reasonably set at the position, but if the opportunity to add competition at the position presents itself in later rounds, the Steelers might be tempted.
"I think this is a good draft. I’ve said this before, there is good depth at the running back position but I never will say, 'Wow, we can get great quality in the fifth or sixth round.'" Colbert said. "Because if you do, again, I’ve always said you have to give credit to the player more so than the draft team because that player exceeded your expectations. If you thought a great player was a great player and we got him in the sixth round, in all honesty you’re lucky, because if he was a great player we should have known that and drafted him higher."
So if the Steelers look to take another back in the middle rounds, who might it be?
If they're looking for a player who has drawn comparisons to Bell himself -- albeit Bell light -- Auburn's Kerryon Johnson might be the guy.
Johnson (6-0, 212 pounds) has heard the comparisons between himself and Bell's patient style of running.
"I think the Le’Veon Bell thing is probably the thing you see most," Johnson said at the NFL Scouting Combine. "Le’Veon is pretty good so that’s high praise. I guess we do things probably the most similar."
Like Bell, Johnson, who rushed for nearly 1,400 yards last season, also catches the ball well. He had 24 receptions for 191 yards and two scores last season, getting into the end zone 20 total times. Also like Bell, Johnson is young. He declared for the draft following his true junior season and won't turn 21 until the end of June.
But it's that start-stop running style, the patience, that draws the Bell comparisons.
"We both have a habit of stopping in the backfield sometimes," Johnson admitted. "I think that’s the main thing people see. But we’re different, the comparisons are nice. It’s cool. You could be compared to a lot of people, but one of the best in the league, in my opinion the best running back in the league, that’s high praise."
In a draft with so many talented runners, Johnson could very well see himself slip into the middle rounds. Where do I have him ranked in this year's class? Here's my list of the top 10 running backs available:
RUNNING BACKS
- Saquon Barkley, 6-0, 233, Penn State
- Derrius Guice, 5-11, 212, LSU
- Ronald Jones, 6-1, 195, USC
- Sony Michel, 5-11, 222, Georgia
- Rashaad Penny, 5-11, 220, San Diego State
- Nick Chubb, 5-11, 228, Georgia
- Kerryon Johnson, 6-0, 212, Auburn
- Royce Freeman, 5-11, 231, Oregon
- John Kelly, 5-9, 212, Tennessee
- Mark Walton, 5-9, 205, Miami (Fla.).
Those 10 running backs should be selected in the first four rounds of this draft, and if the Steelers don't take one there, as Colbert alluded, they'll probably pass on taking once since they won't expect to get a potential starter later in the draft.
So if not Johnson, who else might fit?
Kelly certainly is intriguing. Though slightly undersized, he's a tough runner and also catches the ball well out of the backfield as his 37 receptions for 299 yards last season would suggest. Kelly split time with Alvin Kamara in his first three seasons in Tennessee, averaging a robust 6.5 yards per touch in 2016 as a part-time player.
But he also was suspended one game after being found to be in possession of marijuana following a routine traffic stop.
Still, Kelly has similar traits to Kamara, who was the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year last season after being selected in the third round by New Orleans. Kelly would like to follow a similar path.
“It has definitely helped me out a lot," Kelly said of Kamara's success. "It has been a nice little boost. He just keeps telling me to make sure I be myself and go out there and compete and take advantage of the opportunity. We have been doing it, so it is nothing new.”
