With James Conner likely to miss his fourth game in the past five weeks Sunday against the Browns, there are some within the Steelers organization beginning to question the future of the 2018 Pro Bowl running back in Pittsburgh.
Conner is dealing with a shoulder injury that has limited him to five sub-par carries two weeks ago against the Browns before he left in the first quarter after aggravating the shoulder injury that had kept him out of the previous two games. He has had a lengthy injury history since joining the Steelers in 2017 as a third-round draft pick out of Pitt, dealing with shoulder, knee and ankle injuries. Those have caused him to miss eight games in three seasons, a number that will climb to nine Sunday.
In his absence, the Steelers had struggled to run the ball effectively -- until last week at Cincinnati, when the team rushed for a season-high 160 yards. Rookie Benny Snell rushed for 97 yards on 21 carries in his first game back after missing three games with a knee injury. And he looked as good, if not better, than Conner has looked in any game except for a Week 8 win over the Dolphins. Fellow rookie Kerrith Whyte Jr. added 43 yards on six carries.
Conner had a season-high 145 yards on 23 carries in that game, injuring his shoulder on his final carry. He's been effective catching the ball this season, gaining 242 yards on 30 receptions, but is averaging 3.8 yards per carry, down from 4.5 yards per attempt in each of his first two seasons.
And the 145 yards he had against the Dolphins are a large bulk of the team-high 390 yards he has rushed for this season.
Snell, meanwhile, is averaging 4.4 yards per carry this season running behind the same offensive line. Sure, it's 102 carries to 49, but Snell also has done some short-yardage work this season as the Steelers tried to find ways to work him into games early. In that role, he's 3 of 4 on third-and-1 conversions.
With a good game against the Browns on Sunday, it wouldn't be surprising to see Snell take over or share the lead back duties with Conner the rest of this season and perhaps even beyond.
Conner has one year remaining on his rookie contract with the Steelers beyond this one and it seems unlikely the team will be interested in extending an injury-prone running back whose production has waned.
We've already seen the Steelers make a change at quarterback because of ineffective play. I'm told it wouldn't be surprising to see a change at running back, as well.
MORE STEELERS
• Stephon Tuitt made a rare appearance in the Steelers' locker room this week. The injured defensive end said he's ahead of schedule in his recovery from a torn pectoral muscle. Tuitt told me he will be ready for the start of OTAs. The pectoral muscle he tore is the opposite side from the biceps injury he suffered a couple of years ago. As Tuitt told me, it's the downside of having long arms. That's why it's no coincidence many of the guys suffering torn pectoral and biceps muscles -- including Cam Heyward in the past and J.J. Watt this season -- are the taller, longer-limbed defensive linemen. -- Lolley
• The Steelers have gone through dozens of players on their practice squad already this season. But one player who was a constant on that unit the past two seasons has been center Patrick Morris. The former TCU star spent the entire 2018 season on the practice squad and the first 11 games of this season there before being activated late last week as a replacement for Maurkice Pouncey, who is suspended for two games. Morris was the only Steelers player in uniform who did not play last Sunday in the team's 16-10 victory over the Bengals, but that didn't mean it wasn't an exciting experience. "I came here to play football and it felt more normal to be a part of the game," Morris told me. "As a P-squad player, you don’t really feel like you’re putting your hand in the pile. You still are, but on game day, you don’t get a helmet or get to be active, get your competitive juices flowing." Morris will be active again Sunday when the Steelers play the Browns as Pouncey serves the second game of his two-game suspension for his involvement in the brawl against Cleveland two weeks ago. He'll be watching an offensive line that includes four former players like himself. Every Steelers' projected offensive line starter with the exception of guard David DeCastro was an undrafted player, like Morris. And all but DeCastro and Ramon Foster spent time on the practice squad at some point. "I wouldn’t want to do it a different way. I’ve grown to love it," Morris told me. "It’s so easy to see, especially here. At the beginning of the year, I could have gone to different practice squads. They were going to pay me more money. But I was like, ‘No, I’d rather be here with these guys and this team because I see how they treat people here and it’s better than anywhere else.’" -- Lolley
• Brandon Tanev plays a high-octane game, which is part of the reason he's so effective in the blue-collar roles he fills most of the time. It also explains why he leads the Penguins in penalties-drawn this season, with 12. That's six more than Patric Hornqvist and John Marino, who are tied for second on the team. "I don't think you go out there, necessarily, on a shift looking to draw a penalty," Tanev said. "But at the same time, when you're playing the game the right way and playing hard and you're putting yourself in a position when you're making the other team uncomfortable, things happen and penalties are going to occur. I've been fortunate to be on the right side of those." It's worth noting that Tanev occasionally can get a bit theatrical when he feels an opponent has done something to violate a rule, which generally means exaggerating the impact of the purported infraction to enhance the chances an official notices. Not coincidentally, there have been a few times when it looked as if a penalty could be called on an opponent for something that was done to Tanev, but the referees declined to do so. Then again, neither of the penalties he's been assessed this season has been for embellishment (one was for roughing, the other for boarding), so perhaps Tanev is not offending their sensibilities too badly. -- Dave Molinari
• The holiday is over, of course, but if you're still looking for something more for which you can be thankful, how about this: The Penguins didn't hire Bill Peters to be their coach when the job was open after Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma were fired in 2014. They could have, though, because he and Willy Desjardins were two of the candidates in whom new GM Jim Rutherford appeared to be most interested. Indeed, indications at the time were that Peters rejected the Penguins, rather than the other way around. He opted to take a job in Carolina instead and Rutherford ended up hiring Mike Johnston. Peters is now coaching Calgary, although that likely won't be the case for much longer, since he has been credibly accused of making racist remarks to at least one of his former players and of physically abusing at least two others. -- Molinari
• It was pretty eye-catching when the Penguins were outscored, 3-0, during the second period of their 8-6 victory against the Canucks Wednesday evening at PPG Paints Arena. Not so much because they allowed their opponent a run of unanswered goals -- that's happened a few times during the first two months of this season -- but simply because they failed to get at least one goal of their own during those 20 minutes. The Penguins, you see, are the NHL's highest-scoring team during the second period, racking up 35 goals then. That's two more than Anaheim, which ranks second. By way of comparison, the Penguins have generated 17 goals during the first period and 33 in the third. Precisely why they've been so productive during second periods isn't clear, although it's possible that's been a response to falling behind early in games. "I don't know if it's (related to) our start, if we realize that we're not having a good period and come out for the second," Jake Guentzel said. "That's a weird stat." -- Molinari
PIRATES
• Jeff Banister was a legitimate -- and worthy -- candidate for the Pirates' managerial opening, but he didn't even last to the field of two finalists before it went to Derek Shelton from the Twins. That''ll deeply disappoint Banister, who knew he had Bob Nutting's support, but he'll overcome it. He's intensely loyal, and that particularly applies to this franchise. At the same time, this scene is richly instructive regarding Nutting -- and I've been writing this for years -- that he's a big believer in delegation. That's why the manager search was halted as soon as Neal Huntington was fired, and that's why it didn't restart at all until Ben Cherington was in place. Seriously, not a solitary contact was made in that dead period, from what my sources told me. -- Dejan Kovacevic
• Starling Marte's not the type to stomp his way out of town, in spite of his strong words yesterday to Hector Gomez of Deportivo suggesting he'd be happy if the Pirates traded him to a contender. But he's absolutely competitive enough to want to go to a contender. He's been with one franchise his entire life -- since he was signed out of the Dominican at age 17 -- and he's qualified for three playoffs. After a July sweep by the Mets at Citi Field, he'd expressed to me his disgust over the state of the franchise. Meaning the performance on the field. I wrote this at the time, but he was the most animated of anyone in that setting. He hated it. -- DK
• Who'd replace Marte in center? Well, defensively no one. He's one of the best in baseball, and the Pirates have no one close. Bryan Reynolds could slide there in a play-the-bat approach, but he'll be exposed over a full summer. If that were to happen, though, presuming Gregory Polanco's return to health in right field, one possibility to weigh is a return of Josh Bell to the outfield. No, those couldn't be both corner guys, of course. But late in the 2019 season, for whatever this is worth now, the previous management was openly working toward a plan to have Bell back out there. Just sharing. -- DK
